JUDGES INEZ & VINOODH PHOTOGRAPHERS

Few photographers have seen more through their lenses than Inez & Vinoodh. The duo’s distinctive, experimental practice has made them one of the most sought-after practitioners in the industry – operating, as Inez puts it, as ‘two brains, one person’.

- HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin met at the Fashion Academy in their hometown of Amsterdam, where they both studied fashion design. When Vinoodh commissioned Inez to shoot his first fashion collection in 1986, they realised the potential of their partnership, in work and life. ‘We both grew up in the same city, and have the same influences,’ they say via Zoom from their New York studio. ‘We did that first shoot together and we didn’t even need to talk, we just had the same feelings about everything.’

Their path has seamlessly alternated between fashion photography and high-concept fine art, while their practice is grounded in contradictions: exquisite meets freakish; mundane meets surreal; glamorous meets grotesque. Through a deft command of digital manipulation tools, their images have upended gender roles, subverted societal notions of physical perfection, and lured viewers in with a taste of the sumptuous, only to dash expectations with something altogether more unearthly. ‘Each day is as exciting as it was 30 years ago,’ they say. ‘It’s this idea of reinventing everything all the time. We don’t rely on a formula, and we don’t really get bored.’