Ellen von Unwerth Exhibition @ Staley-Wise Gallery, NYC - "The Provocateur"

Ellen von Unwerth: The Provocateur 

Staley-Wise Gallery, New York 

Through May 11, 2024 

Ellen von Unwerth 

Unmasking, Demi Moore, New York, 1996 

© Ellen von Unwerth, courtesy Staley-Wise Gallery

Ellen von Unwerth 

Afterparty: Dioni Tabbers and Hana Jirickova, Los Angeles, 2011

© Ellen von Unwerth, courtesy Staley-Wise Gallery

The Provocateur is ELLEN VON UNWERTH’s fifth solo exhibition at Staley-Wise Gallery. The photographs included in this exhibition, several of which have never been seen before, reflect a liberated and irrepressible engagement with her subjects that the photographer has championed for her entire career. Ellen Von Unwerth notes “I know what it’s like when you feel really uncomfortable, so I do everything in my power to make them feel at ease – and to live and laugh and move.” These exhibition images reflect a winking provocateur; not so much the object of lust but the playful instigator - both innocent and naughty. While eroticism is in the forefront of many of these images, fantasy and humor unite Ellen von Unwerth’s vision of her subjects simply having fun - with each other, and with the viewer who they tease, taunt, and provoke.

ELLEN VON UNWERTH was born in Germany. She worked in the circus as an assistant to the knife-thrower before being discovered as a model in Munich and beginning her interest in photography. Her work has been published in the world’s leading magazines and she has photographed the album cover artwork or directed music videos for artists including Rihanna, Janet Jackson, Courtney Love, Duran Duran, and Beyoncé, as well as commercials and campaigns for brands including Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, L’Oréal, Thierry Mugler, Uniqlo, and most notably, Guess (featuring a young Claudia Schiffer). In 2018, she launched Ellen von Unwerth’s VON, a creative magazine to express her modern and edgy approach to photography. Nine books of her work have been published and a solo exhibition of her work inaugurated the New York space of Fotografiska in 2020. Most recently, the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta, Georgia opened her retrospective exhibition in 2023.

STALEY-WISE GALLERY

100 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012

www.staleywise.com

ELLEN VON UNWERTH: THE PROVOCATEUR

STALEY-WISE GALLERY, NEW YORK CITY - MARCH 8 - MAY 11, 2024 

Horst: Shadow & Light, Staley-Wise Gallery, New York

Horst: Shadow & Light 

Staley-Wise Gallery, New York 

September 19 – November 1, 2014 

The subject of this exhibition is women, filtered through Horst’s use of shadow and light to achieve his unique dramatic effects. Horst’s love of classical architecture and sculpture figures prominently in much of his work, as does the influence of Surrealism. His dramatic lighting, elegance and imaginative settings changed the look of portrait and fashion photography. 

In work from 1936 to 1987, Horst’s fashion, portrait, and still life photographs demonstrate his extreme sophistication and reflect the artistic spirit of their time. From the surrealism of Dali’s ballet costumes and disembodied hands to portraits of Chanel, Schiaparelli, Dietrich, the Bouvier sisters, and Yves Saint Laurent fashion, he is in tune with the era. 

Horst lived in the center of artistic and social activity of the 20th century. Born into a conventional German family, he soon left for Paris and an apprenticeship with the great architect Le Corbusier.  A chance meeting with the gifted photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene changed the course of his life, opening the doors to a career in photography and a life spent among the elite of Paris and New York.

Horst began working for Vogue in 1932, dividing his year between Paris and New York until the outbreak of World War II, during which he served in the United States Army. Horst worked for Conde Nast publications, and over the course of sixty years he photographed fashion, interiors, and every artistic, political, and social figure of note. Horst’s work has been the subject of numerous articles, books, and documentary films. Museum exhibitions have been held at the International Center of Photography, the Louvre, the Nassau County Museum, London’s National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum London starting September 2014.

STALEY-WISE GALLERY

560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012

www.staleywise.com

Daniel Kramer: Photographs of Bob Dylan, Staley-Wise Gallery, New York

Daniel Kramer 

Photographs of Bob Dylan

Staley-Wise Gallery, New York 

October 7 - November 5, 2005

This collection of black and white photographs was made during the mid 1960s when Bob Dylan was transforming himself from a popular folk singer into an international rock star.  Based on Daniel Kramer’s 1967 book, which was the first major work about Bob Dylan, these photographs illuminate the working and behind-the-scenes life of one of the great artists of our time.

Daniel Kramer first saw the young Bob Dylan on a TV show and was so impressed with his performance and his lyrics that he spent many months pursuing a photo session with the singer.  What resulted was more than a year of photographing Dylan, with a unique, almost unlimited access; photographing him at home, backstage, at concert performances, and in the photographer’s studio.  Photographed also are recording sessions documenting two of his seminal albums Bringing It All Back Home, and Highway 61 Revisited, and the extraordinary session for Like A Rolling Stone.  These iconic photographs cover a year between 1964 and 1965 culminating at the now famous electrified concert at Forest Hills Stadium.

The photographs have appeared on the covers and pages of countless magazines and books worldwide and have been honored with numerous awards including a nomination from the Music Journalism Awards and a Grammy nomination for his Bob Dylan album cover Bringing it all Back Home which was named one of The100 Greatest Album Covers Of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. 

Throughout Daniel Kramer’s varied career, he has photographed some of the most prominent and creative people of his time yet he still considers his photographic sessions with Bob Dylan his most challenging and interesting.

STALEY-WISE GALLERY

560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012

www.staleywise.com