Fashion and art, art and fashion: that’s an ever more common binomial, which keeps on offering challenging starting points for the synthesis of new visions and important contexts where different artistic experiences can coexist and dialogue. We are all used to hearing about fashion designers and brands that choose to get involved in the art world as collectors or founders and supporters of international art projects and venues; and it’s not unusual to learn of artists who put their creativity to use in collaborations for capsule collections and special edition products. The mutual and magnetic attraction between these two cosmos has existed for years, but what makes the contemporary cultural sharing really fruitful is the increasing recognition of fashion photographers, who are able to go beyond the boundaries of their fields, interpreting the urgencies of a market while maintaining a distinguishable artistic language.
Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next exhibition, arranged and co-curated by Foam and guest curator Magdalene Keaney, seems to take to stock of this situation, starting from a simple, but not always taken for grant fact: “fashion photographers are first and foremost photographers”. Fashion is always there, but it is showed in its different aspects, revealing different sceneries and subcultures, which have less to do with superficial slicks. As stated by the promoters of the show, there is a new generation of young photographers, which grew up absorbing the work of Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Jürgen Teller or Wolfgang Tillmans, becoming, by now, undisputed talents, present in many exhibitions, fairs and art publications all over the world.
This new wave of artists follows a singular stylistic path and is, at the same time, able to stress the individual peculiarities of their work, wisely combining tradition and new technological tools. Analogue and digital confront each other, representing diverse devices to develop ideas and keep moments alive. Framed photographs, collages, polaroids, photo installations, videos and books featuring still lifes, landscapes and portraits are made to last more than a single magazine issue. The romantic and dark shots of Julia Hetta, young urban style depicted by Tyrone Lebon, formal neatness of Hanna Putz and genuine and ironic, somehow punk, always cool images by Tung Walsh and Ruvan Wijesooriya (among the others) will be on view at Foam museum in Amsterdam until September 7th. If you are around, even if you are not a fashion addict, don’t miss it.
