Intermission

by Ellen von Unwerth

Intermission, Cannes, 1990

Made at Cannes in 1990, this Fuji Crystal archival print reclines Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington on pink beach towels in jewelled tiaras, feather-trimmed wraps and sequinned shorts, each cradling a tall fruit cocktail. Von Unwerth shoots in a heat-hazed, sun-bleached palette of pastel pinks and blues, the whole frame soft with Riviera glare. The mood is one of pampered, slightly bored languor, high glamour marooned on a public beach.

Read as fine art, the picture is a study in decadent ennui, two supermodels costumed like beauty queens and set adrift among the sun loungers with nothing to do but sip. The theme is glamour at leisure and faintly absurd, the tiaras and feathers colliding with towels and drinking straws to gently send up the fantasy they embody. Von Unwerth’s signature is exactly this wry staging, dressing her subjects as royalty and letting them look comically over it, wholly in on the joke. The work suits a bright, 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

123.2 × 177.8 cm (48½ × 70 in), Fuji Crystal Archival Print, edition of 3

Size: medium

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