Saint Laurent Goes On A Voyage To 6 Cities With "SELF07" Exhibition
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Six photographers and six cities. Saint Laurent and Magnum Photos joined forces to create a contemporary exhibition – SELF 07 – that is happening simultaneously from June 9 to 12 in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai.
Curated by Saint Laurent’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello, the exhibition blends creative disciplines across the art and fashion worlds through the eyes of prestigious photographers.
Although the showcase isn’t in Singapore, we can still enjoy this body of work. Below, we share a few images and the inspirations behind them.
As a street photographer, it comes as no surprise that Webb would want to capture the dynamic and colourful streets for his image. After receiving the call to participate in this exhibition, his first instinct led him to three culturally-rich neighbourhoods of downtown Los Angeles.
The Pinata District, the Flower District, and the Fashion District are home to vibrant streets with brightly painted walls and deep shadows that are reminiscent of the streets of Mexico and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Olivia Arthur, London
Physicality and the importance of touch and connection. Arthur’s “So not so” photo series explores the limits of the human relationship with our bodies and how they relate to one another. She also incorporated elements of make-believe and play to reflect how technology and reality have blended into one.
“Our virtual worlds have grown to become a genuine reality and as technology creeps, we need to remind ourselves of the hard feeling of a hand on a wall or the clatter of pebbles falling over each other,” says Arthur.
Harry Gruyaert, Paris
Gruyaert has a fascination with airports, which is why he chose to shoot in this setting after receiving Vaccarello’s invitation. The final image is similar to the photos in his book titled “Last Call”.
What exactly makes an airport standout?
“They are places that concentrate everything that usually catches my eye as a photographer: the interplay of light, transparency and reflections, the effects of superimpositions that create a loss of reference points and give this very strong impression of being between two worlds,” says Gruyaert.
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The pandemic played a big part in Lee’s submission. When the world seemingly stopped in early 2020, Lee was in awe of how nature revived itself when everyone was in quarantine.
“The sky was so blue, more than ever, birds were singing so loudly out of my apartment window and the leaves of the trees in the streets were greener than ever. It was such a surreal experience. Since then, I no longer see the world in the same way,” says Lee.
Takashi Homma*, Tokyo
As a city with eclectic and eccentric style, the way of life in Tokyo is contradictory – rigid and daunting. Using the camera obscura technique, Homma intentionally captured a blended world, which draws back to his main message – “The city and fashion are always in a one-to-one relationship."
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The team, which consists of Song Tao and Ji Weiyu, has been working with analog photography since 2004 and their work for "SELF 07" shows their mastery of this medium.
The inverted negative photographic print is inspired by the symbiosis between species in nature. The contour lines up the cityscape, clothing, clouds, trees and more combined with different lights and shade blocks to foster a sense of integration – much like the cursive script of Chinese calligraphy.
*Daesung Lee, Takashi Homma and BIRDHEAD are Magnum Photos Guest Photographers