by Ellen von Unwerth
Mais Amor Por Favor, Rio de Janeiro, 2014
Artist: Ellen von Unwerth
Shot in Rio de Janeiro in 2014, this colour photograph poses Alessandra Ambrosio at a small green hillside kiosk stacked with snacks, glancing back over her shoulder in a pale bikini, quilted chain bag and electric-blue heels. Beside her a hand-painted sign reads “Mais Amor Por Favor”, more love, please, the title lifted straight from the wall. Von Unwerth shoots in warm, saturated daylight, the model’s high-fashion polish set hard against the everyday textures of the corrugated roof and roadside dirt.
Read as fine art, the picture is about glamour dropped into the ordinary, a supermodel and a Chanel bag transplanted to a neighbourhood snack stand, the painted plea for “more love” hanging over the scene like a wry caption. The theme is contrast and warmth, luxury and the street holding each other in frame without irony curdling into mockery, the subject relaxed and complicit rather than posed. Von Unwerth’s signature is exactly this collision of high and low, staging desire with humour while her subject stays in charge of the look. The work suits a bold, characterful interior 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.
Size: medium
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