A Strange and Penetrating Dream.
Paul Verlaine’s verses about “The strange and penetrating dream of an unknown woman… who’s never, each time, the same exactly, nor, exactly, different” were written in 1866.
This was a while ago and Kate Moss is far from unknown, but Verlaine’s description in “The Familiar Dream” seems to fit her today like a velvet glove.
The portfolio published by James Danziger shows the British icon through time, space and the eyes of 11 photographers and her familiar face reverberates to the camera like no other. Regardless of the years and the drastic different styles of the photographers, Kate remains Kate, still, inhabiting their universe while bringing her own touch to it.
The limited edition portfolio of photographs of Kate Moss by 11 of the world’s leading photographers is curated by James Danziger and Kate Moss, it features photographs by:
Chuck Close
Annie Leibovitz
Glen Luchford
Mert & Marcus
Terry Richardson
David Sims
Mario Sorrenti
Juergen Teller
Mario Testino
Inez Van Lamsweerde + Vinoodh Matadin
Bruce Weber
Housed in a silver box designed by legendary art director Ruth Ansel, and printed by master printer David Adamson, the 11 pigment prints, each 30 × 24 inches, cover a 15-year period in Moss’s still-vibrant career. The portfolio is limited to an edition of 30 with the colophon signed by Kate Moss and each print hand signed by the individual photographers. It is priced from $75,000 each, a price which we can expect to go up as the series sells out.
The portfolio will be exhibited for the first time at the Pulse art fair in Miami from December 2nd to the 5th.
In a recent interview with the New York Times Horacio Silvia, when asked about the reason why to her “icon” status she answers: “I guess I’m adaptable. I don’t know, I kind of go with whatever they want. I don’t see myself as one thing. You know, I turn up at work and they can kind of do what they want with me, really [laughs]. It’s not like there is one look that I specifically do — I’ve done a lot of different things.”
And still, from London to Graceland, Paris to Mexico and whether it is 1993 or 2008 Miss Moss remains never the same exactly, nor, exactly different. A galaxy separates the images of Annie Leibovitz from the ones of Juergen Teller but it is as if Kate generates the light instead of just reflecting it through the lens. She looks more youthful in David Sims’ 2006 photograph than in Mario Sorrenti’s iconic portrait of 1993.
Sorcery? Maybe the answer lies in James Danziger’s point of view on Kate Moss. To him, she is more an artist’s muse than a model. As he states in the press release:
“Unlike any model in the history of fashion photography, Kate Moss has proved to be a unique subject, inspiring photographers and artists and blurring the boundaries between fashion photography and contemporary art. In a career that has lasted 23 years to date, it can be said that Moss’s particular beauty and singular figure have made her more of a muse than a supermodel. Unselfconscious and unapologetic, Moss’s artistic persona and sensuality have changed notions of beauty and influenced the culture at large.”
Well, through the years Miss Moss crossed and merged the worlds of art and fashion many times. In an other excerpt from the New York Times interview she says:
“… I’ve worked with a lot of artists — Lucian Freud, Marc Quinn, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Jake and Dinos Chapman. I did an issue for British Vogue about 10 years ago and worked with a lot of artists and through that I became friends with some of them. A lot of them, really. And, you know, we’d see each other out, hang out at parties and what have you, and over the years they’d ask me to do odd projects.”
We can add to this list Chuck Close (featured in the portfolio), Tom Sachs, Richard Prince and Alex Katz…
Lucian Freud painting of Miss Moss pregnant sold for $7.5 million, Marc Quinn’s sculpture of her in a yoga pose sits at the British Museum and is worth $1.5 million in gold alone, the late Corinne Day’s passport style photographs of a candid Miss Moss were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
As Marc Jacobs simply puts it “Kate is a muse to a generation … she defines a time, a feeling, that has become part of history”.
And, what the Danziger portfolio brings us is not only another look at the muse but also, like going through the mirror, we have now a better idea of what and whom she found inspiring in all the images she inspired.
Asked by the New York Times about the one picture which has for her a special resonance, she answers:
“I think probably the Mario Sorrenti print, the first black-and-white one in the series. Even though I wasn’t that naïve at the time, I really look it. I was in a relationship with him at the time and it was a very intense period of my life — it was my growing-up stage. I think I was 18 or something. I’d left London and went to New York and everything started to happen.”
Well, 23 years to date in front of the camera it still very does happen with Kate Moss, and the strange and penetrating dream goes on.
Gilles Decamps
