by Ellen von Unwerth
Claudia Schiffer, 1990
Artist: Ellen von Unwerth
Made in 1990, this black-and-white photograph catches Claudia Schiffer turning to look back over one shoulder, her arms wrapped across herself, the wide white brim of a hat cutting a strong diagonal above her face. Von Unwerth shoots close and on grainy film, the curve of the back and the level, over-the-shoulder gaze carrying the whole composition. The setting falls away to soft shadow, leaving the figure and the turn of the head.
Read as fine art, the picture is a classic study in the backward glance, a pose as old as portraiture used here for its quiet tension between concealment and address. The theme is self-possession, the model holding herself and holding the viewer’s eye at once, composed and unhurried on her own terms. Von Unwerth’s signature is exactly this intimacy, a moment that reads as caught rather than posed while the subject stays fully in command of it. The work suits a refined, considered interior where a monochrome study rewards close looking, 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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