The established Hamiltons Gallery in London launches their new exhibition Un Rêve de Mode by renowned fine-art and fashion photographer Cathleen Naundorf.
Cathleen Naundorf has developed a very unique artistic style creating work of exquisite and classical quality that one does not often encounter. The photographs in this exhibition can be described as an homage to the grandeur, beauty and grace to the world of Haute Couture. Un Rêve de Mode includes captivating photographs of often exotic, fairy-like models in elegant poses, wearing the magnificent clothing of Dior, Chanel, Elie Saab, Laroix, Gaultier and Valentino. Her photographic productions havet a painterly quality and could be described as magical, nostalgic and maybe even a bit fantastical.
Cathleen Naundorf career also has been fairy-tale like: born in Weissenfels an der Saale, Germany, in 1968 she studied graphic design, painting and photography in Munich and graduated in the late 1980s. Before starting to travel to destinations such as Mongolia, Siberia and Brazil, Naundorf worked as a photo assistant in Paris, New York and Singapore. In 1997 she started photographing for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and had her own fashion page. After nine years of travelling, Naundorf met her future mentor Horst P. Horst in New York. He had a great influence on her work and from him she learned the craft of lighting and pose. But, even more importantly, this meeting sparked the desire in Naundorf to work with fashion and strengthened her belief that it was possible to create strong and enduring fashion images.
Seven years ago Cathleen Naundorf visited Jean-Paul Gaultier and asked him to lend her one or two dresses to photograph; after studying her Polaroids, Gaultier granted Naundorf unlimited access to his entire collection. This meeting marked the beginning of Naundorf’s Haute Couture series Un Rêve de Mode and since she has worked on the six most established Parisian fashion houses. She has subsequently been exhibited in galleries across Europe and the USA.
Although seemingly effortless, creating a unique connection between image and clothing is a time consuming process for Naundorf. An intensive preparation process accompanies every photograph before which she conducts extensive research, collects archive material, sketches and develops a storyboard. Every detail, such as the model, the location, the gowns as well as the hair and make-up design, is essential to create her dream-like shots.
But just as important as her research and preparation, is the technique Naundorf uses to give her photographs this otherworldly character. Naundorf is a firm and passionate believer in large format cameras and for her work she exclusively uses Polaroid film and a special kind of Polaroid transfer, which makes every image unique. The process creates imperfections, such as the Polaroid’s irregular borders, and it is these incidental elements that give the images their charm.
These intriguing and even cinematic images make the viewer realise Naundorf’s fascination for the world, its history, its curiosities and the lives of the people who inhabit it. But however sensual Naundorf’s photographs might be, they are not a romanticization of the fashion world, rather a reflection of a world in which nothing is what it seems. Some of images in the series Un Rêve de Mode even contain slight ironic and provocative elements such as the ones depicting models wearing the magnificent robes of Dior taken in front of and next to skeletons of animals in a Natural History Museum.
The tension created between the vintage, ethereal look of her series Un Rêve de Modeand the contemporary fashion pieces depicted creates photographs that really don’t need much explanation; there simply is something so special in them that they stay in one’s mind.
Anna-Maria Pfab
Un Rêve de Mode
Until the 31st of March 2012
Hamiltons Gallery
13 Carlos Place London W1K 2EU, Royaume-Uni
020 7499 9493
A publication of her Haute Couture series is scheduled in 2012, published by Prestel.
Hamiltons Gallery will also be exhibiting at TEFAF, Maastricht 2012, 16th – 25th March, Stand 713 showing Modern Masters.
