Great Photographer Series

Fashion 11, Yoji Yamamoto, 1996 Colour Pigment Print, 74 x 57 cm

great photogrpher series

Sarah Moon

Fashion 10, pour New York Times, 1998, Colour Pigment Print, 73.5 x 56 cm

The Evanescent World October 26, 2018

By Daniela Mericio

Photographs with soft edges, where the presences are elusive, immersed in an indefinite time.

The inner state of mind imposes itself on the external reality, transforming it into a vision between the oneiric and the fantastic,sometimes disquieting, often astonishing.

Sarah Moon, master of contemporary photography, is the protagonist, in Milan, of two complementary exhibitions: Time at work at the Fondazione Prada and From One Season to another at the Armani Silos. As the titles indicate, time is a central dimension in the work of the French photographer, it is recollection, memory, narration. The shots let you guess a before and after beyond the pictured moment and the passage of time is made evident also by the shooting and the chosen post-production techniques.

Born in France in 1941, Marielle Warin grew up in England, where the family took refuge to

escape Nazism. In the ’60s she did modelling between London and Paris with the name Marielle Hadengue before moving on to the other side of the lens and adopting the pseudonym with which she is now known all over the world.

She started with fashion photography in 1968 but she turned its language away from the cliché of the bright and glossy photos typical of the field, opting for a pictorial and romantic style that would mature with years. She created campaigns for big brands like Cacharel, Dior, Yamamoto, Comme de Garçons Issey Miyake.

The images, although taken in a studio, seem indefinite apparitions.

They are inspired by photography from the past and portraits of dreamy women from 19th-century.

Since the mid-1980s, Moon has increasingly focused on research and introspection. She privileges black and white, which she describes as the colour of memory and fiction. The subjects, in addition to phantom human figures, are animals, trees, landscapes filtered by a personal vision that has little to do with “objective” reality and thatseems to draw on symbolic and unconscious suggestions. Some fashion photographs are exhibited in the wide lounges of the Armani Silos: large-format colour prints follow one another

along the walls together with birds and still life of flowers. They seduce the visitor without attacking him, thanks to their subdued tones, the pale colours and the soft edges.

The models look like two-dimensional paper figures, dolls of uncertain identity, on which someone seems to have applied clothes, almost for fun. Ethereal figures with faces often hidden by hands or hats, on which the garments stand out at their best, such as the golden yellow clothes or the large polka dots in two famous photos. Curated by Moon herself, the exhibition includes 170 images, from the mid70s to the present: the order is not chronological, but follows a poetic flow, combining colour with smaller black and white prints that belong to the personal research of artist.

On this last aspect of his work is focused the more intimate exhibition at the Sozzani Foundation: 90 works (1995-2018), of which only a couple in colour, lead us into a fairy-tale universe, often distressing, made of dark landscapes, industrial or marine, whose horizon seems to delimit a border that overlooks the unknown.

Puzzling animals, flights of elusive birds, fashion shots with veiled and mysterious women populate a surreal world, in which nightmares alternate with dreams.

Long and obvious grains create

nebulous atmospheres. The contours are gentle thanks to the soft focus effect that softens contrasts, making the face of a model or the foliage of a tree almost impalpable.

Even the most defined photographs are covered by light tricks, overexposure and dense shadows.

Often torn by scratches, “stained” by patches, framed by visible margins. Manipulations that create an ancient, primitive effect, to show the imprints of time, the signs of decadence on a material destined to fade. They look like old photographs pulled out of a dusty trunk.

Like the selection of Polaroid on show, which the photographer tells of having found in a drawer, corroded and faded by the years.

Those of Sarah Moon are imperfect images, but full of emotionality, Shot following an intuition, listening to the echo of something coming from within, result of unexpected coincidences, of an emotion that meets reality and creates a representation transporting it in the field of fiction. “I’m not capable of being a reporter,”Moon admitted in a famous interview.

Sarah Moon is also known for videos, advertising films and documentaries. Two are on display at the Sozzani Foundation: There is something about Lillian (2001), dedicated to the photographer Lillian Bassman and the short film

La Bouche Perdue, 2000, Colour pigme

ent print, 57 x 74 cm, Edition of 15, Signed, titled and editioned in pencil with blind stamp on the verso

Contacts (1995). Even the double exposure is among the “magic” used by the artist, just look at the small format photographs of another series, Danse, Danse: each frame captures a different movement and the succession of

“

prints creates a cinematic effect.

The photograph of Sarah Moon crystallizes an instant by extracting it from the temporal flow, insinuating the existence of a story that is the task of the spectator to imagine and which the artist just suggests.

For nothing to happen, something has to happen first.

”

“ I create situations that do not exist.

I seek the truth from fiction.”

Le pavot, 1997, Colour pigment print, 57 x 74 cm, Edition of 15, Signed and titled on the verso La Robe à Pois, 1996, color pigment transfer print, 30 x 22.5 in. Edition of 20, signed, titled on the verso

Enigmatic Images Offer An Ethereal Take On Fashion Photography 18 October, 2018

By Kathryn O’Regan Sarah Moon – From one season to another Armani Silos, Milano Via Bergognone 40 Until January 6th, 2019 Wednesday to Sunday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm

As an exhibition opens of her dreamy small and large format images and atmospheric work at Armani from throughout her 40-plus Silos, we find out what makes the year career, this exhibition provides French fashion photographer tick. an astonishing insight into her

enigmatic work. Having shot advertising campaigns for the French fashion photographer likes of Biba and Cacharel in the Sarah Moon’s hazy images don’t ‘70s before going on to shoot offer the truth — they hint at for innumerable fashion magazines a vague narrative, the threads of and create more personal work a story, nothing solid or certain. reflecting on themes such as the Rather than fixed documents, transience of time and beauty, they are more akin to fragments of Moon’s imagery has always memories, or dreams, a glimpse provided a different take on the of a fantasy. Stained with pigconcept of fashion photography. mented colour and dark shadow, Unfazed by the superficiality of her photographs resemble found changing trends, the photographer photos, the sort you might stumble has carved out her own unique upon by chance at a flea market, vision, characterised by atmospheric weathered with time, or discover chiaroscuro and impressionistic locked away in an attic somewhere. blurs and quivers. In celebration Frequently described as existing of this extensive and self-curated “outside of time”, they exude — survey of her oneiric work, mystery, melancholy and poeticism.

SLEEK chatted to Moon about her The timeless ethereality of inspirations, her dreamy soft focus, Moon’s work is the subject of the and the “architecture of clothes”. celebrated photographer’s latest exhibition at Armani Silos in Milan, “From One Season to Another”. Presenting over 170

How would you describe your approach to photography? What photographic precedents have influenced your work?

My approach to photography is autodidacte, I didn’t go to any art school. Of course, at the beginning, when the technique was another story than now, I had an assistant – Mike Yavel – who taught me how to make the camera translate what I saw. In fashion photography, I admired Guy Bourdin, and many others. But I also admired Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, who were not in the fashion field. Plus, I always think we are influenced not only by what we like but also by what we dislike.

When I began in the ’70s, the label I had was “Impressionist” and blurry. As it went on, I feel I’ve moved on… And I don’t feel I am so Impressionist now.

This exhibition is at Giorgio Armani’s museum. Of the designer, you have said that “We both enjoy the challenge of doing more, with less”. What to do you mean by this?

What I mean by “less is more” is to be less anecdotic and to try to go to the essential to express what you feel about it. When I see the Silos, I have the feeling that Giorgio Armani shares the same purpose.

You photographs have a dreamy, soft focus. What attracts you to this blurred aesthetic, and what quality does it bestow onto your work?

I have always worked in the shade, with low speed exposure. And often I do double exposure. It allows the movement of the wind.

What has been your most memorable project or series to date?

Always the last one.

What type of fashion are you generally interested in representing in your photographs?

I have always been interested in the architecture of clothes, I find the Japanese designers — from Miyake to Yohji Yamamoto — have a way of seeing that enhances it. I am also interested in timeless fashion that does not depend on trends.

Your images have been described as having an “Impressionist” quality. To what extent has painting influenced your practice?

Les Orchidees, 2010, Handmade pigment, transfer print, 74 x 57 cm

Le parfum, 2001, Colour pigment print, 74 x 57 cm

Fashion 10, pour New York Times, 1998, Colour Pigment Print, 73.5 x 56 cm