Color, eroticism, modern elegance: a view to a special photographic world
His father Alan was one of the most famous art directors, designers and illustrators of the '60s and '70s, and since childhood he has been in close contact with painters, illustrators, musicians and photographers. With this cultural background, it was pretty obvious that Miles Aldridge, born in 1964 in London, should find his personal and professional expression in a creative job.
Aldridge, however, before becoming one of the great photographers of today, followed in the footsteps of his father only in part: he studied illustration at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London, "but only because I wanted to be cool like my dad", he recalls. Until then, the camera was just one of many passions, like the guitar, which he played in a rockabilly band in the early '90s.
The breakthrough came thanks to his girlfriend of the time, a beautiful girl who, like the new sensation of the time, Kate Moss, had made up her mind to become a model. "I made a photo book with which she went around knocking at the doors of fashion magazines. At Vogue UK, they asked her who had taken these shots, and after some time I got a call. She was not successful as a model, but it was thanks this stroke of luck that I became a professional photographer".
The thing that will have struck them and which is still striking today is his highly personal style, able to assemble reality in a different way. Miles Aldridge does not photograph the model he has before him, but manages to set up a human and subtly erotic narrative rapport with her, in which a psychologist might perhaps find some Freudian traces: "I think of all the possible female figures - wife, mother, prostitute… In my mind, all women are a sort of mix of all these figures. I have always been naturally fascinated by women. If I think of my mother, my sister, my wife, I realize that there are some aspects common to all of them: beauty, anxiety, frustrations".
The fascination Aldridge has for women is one of the keystones to his way of photographing. He has never denied it, just as he candidly confesses to having regularly fallen in love with all his partners on the set. With one of these, Kristen McMenamy, his fascination went much further: the two married in London in October 1997, when she was five months pregnant. And today, the couple is still going strong. In both human and professional terms.
Marco Gentili (edited by Lella Scalia) via VOGUE Italia
To read the full profile of Miles Aldridge click here
Aldridge, however, before becoming one of the great photographers of today, followed in the footsteps of his father only in part: he studied illustration at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London, "but only because I wanted to be cool like my dad", he recalls. Until then, the camera was just one of many passions, like the guitar, which he played in a rockabilly band in the early '90s.
The breakthrough came thanks to his girlfriend of the time, a beautiful girl who, like the new sensation of the time, Kate Moss, had made up her mind to become a model. "I made a photo book with which she went around knocking at the doors of fashion magazines. At Vogue UK, they asked her who had taken these shots, and after some time I got a call. She was not successful as a model, but it was thanks this stroke of luck that I became a professional photographer".
The thing that will have struck them and which is still striking today is his highly personal style, able to assemble reality in a different way. Miles Aldridge does not photograph the model he has before him, but manages to set up a human and subtly erotic narrative rapport with her, in which a psychologist might perhaps find some Freudian traces: "I think of all the possible female figures - wife, mother, prostitute… In my mind, all women are a sort of mix of all these figures. I have always been naturally fascinated by women. If I think of my mother, my sister, my wife, I realize that there are some aspects common to all of them: beauty, anxiety, frustrations".
The fascination Aldridge has for women is one of the keystones to his way of photographing. He has never denied it, just as he candidly confesses to having regularly fallen in love with all his partners on the set. With one of these, Kristen McMenamy, his fascination went much further: the two married in London in October 1997, when she was five months pregnant. And today, the couple is still going strong. In both human and professional terms.
Marco Gentili (edited by Lella Scalia) via VOGUE Italia
To read the full profile of Miles Aldridge click here
Please add our Blog with Bloglovin' HERE
Please add our Facebook fan page HERE
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen