by Ellen von Unwerth
Christy & Linda, 1990
Artist: Ellen von Unwerth
Made in 1990, this gelatin silver photograph is a tight close-up of Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista in sequinned flapper headpieces and heavy period make-up, one drawing on a cigarette with lowered lashes while the other tips her head back to exhale a plume of smoke. Von Unwerth crops in hard and shoots in high-contrast black and white, filling the frame with two faces and the drift of smoke between them. The result has the languid, decadent charge of a 1920s tableau caught mid-breath.
Read as fine art, the picture is a study in glamour and abandon, two of the era’s defining models playing at Jazz Age dissipation with total conviction. The theme is performance and intimacy, a shared, knowing indulgence staged between friends who own every inch of the pose rather than offer it up. Von Unwerth’s signature is exactly this complicity, directing a scene of excess while leaving her subjects unmistakably in command. The work suits a considered, characterful interior that can carry its width, 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
76.2 × 101.6 × 2.5 cm (30 × 40 × 1 in), Gelatin Silver Print, edition of 7
Size: medium
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