by Ellen von Unwerth
Baby Woman, New York, 1994
Artist: Ellen von Unwerth
Made in New York in 1994, this gelatin silver photograph places Naomi Campbell centre-frame in a black corset and heels in a small, chequer-tiled bathroom, arms raised to her hair, staring level down the lens. Von Unwerth shoots it hard and flash-lit in high-contrast black and white, the everyday grime of the setting, the toilet, the shower curtain, the bottle on the floor, deliberately at odds with the couture pose. The effect is raw, confrontational and completely composed.
Read as fine art, the picture stages power in the least glamorous room in the house, a supermodel commanding a squalid backdrop entirely on her own terms. The theme, sharpened by the title, is the collision of the girlish and the grown, innocence and provocation held in the same frame while the subject refuses to be anything but in control. Von Unwerth’s signature is exactly this defiant staging, glamour dropped into the gutter and made to dominate it, the sitter always the one running the scene. The work suits a bold, characterful interior with the confidence to carry it and speaks to collectors drawn to fashion photography’s crossover into fine art. Ellen von Unwerth’s photographs are issued as limited editions, each print part of a controlled run.
Sizes & Editions
50.8 × 61 cm (20 × 24 in), Gelatin Silver Print, edition of 15
Size: medium
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