Fragile Face Laid Flat: A coup for Matches Fashion as Venetia Scott turns the focus on her own photography work with gallery duo Sion & Moore

26.09.2019 | Art , Blog | BY: admin

What’s in a face? What expressions do they hold. What do they aim to reveal, and what do they choose to conceal to the viewer.

Venetia Scott, Fashion Director of Vogue whose own photography work spans over a decade, has put the spotlight on some of the most famous faces she has shot, cropping down the image, and spotlighting a tight frame on nothing above the crown and nothing below the neck.

The result? Mesmerising faces entrance and envelop the viewer, as we are caught in their beam. The graininess of the zoom only enhances a sense of retrograde nostalgia about the shots: are we looking back into something or forward?

Scott developed the idea for the work whilst blowing up parts of her images – she noticed that, whilst detail is lost in the zoom, a new quality arises – one that draws you in. The portraits are beautifully eerie, looking as if they might have been taken from missing person files. The face of each girl captivates the viewer but stops short of telling us everything we might want to know.

The name of the exhibition came about after Venetia saw it written on the side of a packing crate in Paris. Is it a face of fragility or resilience? Is it a two dimensional shot or is the woman looking right back, while sealed in the frame?

With all the images being of faces made famous from fashion shows and magazines, notably many from Venetia’s intrepid career, we are also presented with faces some of us have grown up with and have shaped our ideas of beauty and grace. They are familiar, from Lindsey Wixon to Lineisy Montero Feliz, and yet we hardly know them at all.

In conjunction with the brilliant Sion & Moore, whose duo of former photography agent Kim Sion and creative consultant Lucy Kumara Moore, director of Claire De Rouen Books, have launched quite the partnership in a contemporary gallery project, the exhibition also heralds a new movement coming into play in Matchesfashion. Exploring the overflow of fashion into other creative spheres, the exhibition hopefully signals many more photography expositions in the 5 Carlos place address. Matchesfashion, as ever, has the finger on the creative pulse, and by celebrating the arts in all its fascinations, they are opening their doors wide for a new stream of showcasing and celebration.