Inez & Vinoodh: a wild, fantastic collaboration

A hundred to three hundred people on set, a fixed number of fifteen team members, clients like Vogue, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Porter and Balenciaga and exhibitions in the world’s most influential galleries and museums: all the above says something about where Dutch photographers and life partners Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are now. But it all started in The Netherlands, when Inez and Vinoodh met at Amsterdam’s fashion academy.

Although both Inez and Vinoodh were initially studying at the same fashion academy, the two first worked together slightly later in their lives, when Matadin asked Van Lamsweerde to photograph for his fashion label. From that moment in 1986 onwards, Van Lamsweerde focused more and more on fashion photography, which would motivate her to get a Master’s degree at the most renowned art school of The Netherlands, the Rietveld Academy. In the meantime, Vinoodh started the ‘Lawina’ clothing brand. 

Both fell in love the moment they met, but Inez & Vinoodh were in separate relationships back then. Until ‘92, when the two found themselves single and began dating. It was in 1994 when the couple had moved to New York City, that Inez and Vinoodh started working together as photographers. After the first year in the Big Apple, they were taking pictures together – mostly on photography sets and both with their own cameras. From that moment onwards, the two worked on many projects, which brought them to the forefront in the fields of both art and fashion.

“Inez & Vinoodh operate on the world stage,” says MENDO’s Emile, “which makes me really proud. They’re both born in Amsterdam. They have worked on some amazing campaigns – I could easily say they belong to the best photographers of the world.” Emile was first introduced to the work of Inez & Vinoodh when MENDO started selling their retrospective, which focuses on ‘pretty much everything’ that the photographers have been working on for over two decades. “Pretty Much Everything is one of the better photo books that we sell in our store,” says Emile. “The regular edition of the book is square and red, and comes with a removable sticker page. The book really shows how much they have created in the last 2,5 decades. Their work is also featured in MOAM, and you can find their introduction in the book Fantastic Man: Men of Great Style and Substance.”

When browsing ‘Pretty Much Everything’, the technical aspect of Inez & Vinoodh’s work is striking. Their fantastical portraits are always created in the grey area where the art world ends and the fashion world begins. The duo has been creating highly manipulated and stylized images since the time that only few photographers would digitally edit their photos. That manipulation would grow out to be one of their distinctive trademarks.

It is that distinctiveness that Emile likes best, when he looks at the work of Inez & Vinoodh. “They were some of the first photographers who started with adding layers of art and paint over photographs, which delivers a very unique effect. To me, adding that extra layer defines their work. If I have to compare their style with another photographer I admire, I would say their photography reminds me of the pictures that are in the recently published book of Viviane Sassen, mainly because of the models’ poses. Sassen uses similar, vibrant colors, and also paints her models or let them wear a lot of makeup.”

Through the years, Inez & Vinoodh have photographed personalities such as Kate Moss, Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise, Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, created a lot of non-commercial work and worked on campaigns for leading fashion houses, brands and publications. Like the New York Times mentioned in a profile article, ‘It’s hard to walk through the streets of SoHo these days without seeing an image created by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.’ 

To the New York Times, Inez & Vinoodh said that their unusual bond is part of their fascination. According to Matadin, ‘of course, they have disagreements. We are human beings’. But they don’t argue – they ‘work things out’. The couple has specific ideas for their shoots, but remain flexible as soon as they start photographing. The Times also talked to actress Julianne Moore, who worked with Inez & Vinoodh multiple times and told them: ‘Some photographers say, “We just want to capture who you are.” That’s impossible. Inez and Vinoodh know that they’re not in any way attempting to find your essence. They will find this other thing, and you contribute to it.’

The two have developed a unique way of collaborating, with very minimal communication: as Van Lamsweerde directs their model, Matadin walks around their subject and shoots unposed pictures from different angles. Combined, as Van Lamsweerde recently told Paper Magazine, it creates an ideal setup, “because we’ll have the exact same moment, but with a very different feeling attached to it.” That combination of aware photographs by Inez, and unaware, “softer” photographs by Vinoodh, might just explain why the couple managed to be on top of their game for this many years. 

The exhibition ‘I SEE YOU IN EVERYTHING‘ is on display at the Amsterdam-based Ravestijn Gallery from Saturday 7 September 2019 to Saturday 19 October 2019. Pretty Much Everything by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin is available in our online store.