Kai Stuht & Miles Cockfield (Syntymävuosi 1964)

Kai Stuht’s sensual fashion photography brings together contrasting elements in a perfectly balanced composition. A master of the sublime, he inspires the viewer through baroque opulence and viscose elegance, whilst balancing any hint of pompous solemnity with the charm of decay. Luxurious curtains are draped deliberately in front of bare, industrial walls. Amongst them, razor thin models pose like antique goddesses and dreamy princesses. The visual concept was developed together with Miles Cockfield, who has previously worked with the likes of Michel Comte and Sarah Moon. It offers the perfect framework for an evocative re-working of themes from mythology and the history of art. Giant balls populate the image, like planets waiting to be thrown by a goddess. They not only occupy space in a formal manner, but also juxtapose the texture of the curtains. In another image, discarded wash basins lie like expensive hunting trophies, draped across a tiled Dutch floor. Flanked by a tall wooden ladder, they train the gaze of the viewer onto the model in the skin-tight evening dress. It is as if one lived in a deliberate parody of the paintings of the old masters, their biblical and antique subjects having been reinvented through the elaborate use of fashion photography and a fine sense of dramaturgic storytelling. With Stuht, the old never seems old, and the new never seems artificial.