Unique polaroids
Renowned fashion photographer’s career celebrated in an auction.
AUCTION house Phillips pays homage to American fashion photographer Steven Klein’s decades-long career with an auction “Ultimate Steven Klein” to be held on September 25, consisting of 24 polaroids featuring celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Prince, Naomi Campbell and Alexander Mcqueen.
Created during editorial assignments for publications like W, Vogue US & Italia and Interview, they were shot with a polaroid back attached to a film camera. They acted as visual studies for what became his final published images, in which Klein often subverted our notions of glamour, fame and beauty.
“There is inherently a fragile nature to polaroids and instant film compared to digital; this fragileness, this one of-a-kind exclusiveness creates an aura around the object of the photograph – a kind of fetish, a talisman. Talismans are magical objects. Carl Jung said, ‘The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.’ I think the viewer’s interaction with an image can be transformative as well,’” Klein said in a statement.
“Ancient art and image making were perceived as belonging to the magical realm. This project before you is a demonstration of conjuring images from the void through the transmission of Light. Art ultimately is a way to make sense of the chaos we enter as humans.”
They are expected to sell for between £3,000 and £7,000 (RM16,280 and RM37,987), at the exception of a unique oversized diptych of his iconic “Good Kate, Bad Kate” covers for the March 2012 issue of W.
Estimated to fetch up to £60,000 (RM325,603), “Kate Moss Diptych” was created by Klein exclusively for ULTIMATE, which is a platform promoting and selling exceptional photographs, photo-based works and video via Phillips.
Klein’s polaroids will be available for viewing at Phillips’ London galleries on September 19, marking the first time that this body of work is exhibited in Europe.