Vanessa Winship, winner of the Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson 2011, and whose series Georgia (2009) and Latvia (2009) were exhibited at the Galerie VU last year under the title Not Only Rare Birds Sing, after the exhibition of Sweet Nothings at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2008, has been chosen by Hermès to take portraits of its “dignified” house artisans for the 2011 Fall-Winter issue of Le Monde d’Hermès magazine.
“If her process is reminiscent of August Sanders’ systematic documentation of the social types of Weimar Germany, Vanessa Winship’s approach is hardly sociological in the scientific sense,” says the Galerie Vu. “Her vision if resolutely poetic. Discovering the portraits of Winship is to take a journey through ancient times, a return to our places of origin.”
Poetry and memory: it’s no surprise that Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermés (and great-grandson of its founder), and Stéphane Wargnier, editor-in-chief of the Monde d’Hermès, fell for Winship’s work and chose her to represent the artisanal splendor of this historic fashion house.
The 2011 Fall-Winter issue of Le Monde d’Hermès will be available at Hermès stores until February 2012. The next issue will be directed by guest editor Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Séverine Morel
[email protected]
