Runway, Dior, Paris, 2010 © Jeff Mermelstein
Rick Wester Fine Art 526 W. 26th Street, Suite 417 NY 10001 New York États-Unis
A photographer's journey through the world of style - Jeff Mermelstein in New York, Paris and Milan. Rick Wester Fine Art is pleased to announce our second exhibition featuring the work of renowned New York street photographer Jeff Mermelstein; and the first to feature his editorial work for the fashion industry.
Mermelstein followed the taste making elite from New York to Paris to Milan, photographing runway shows, behind the scenes and in the streets surrounding the intricate and often ostentatious presentations. Not in the category of paparazzi, he had privileged access to all of fashion's leading figures, from the designers to the models to the audience. In New York he photographed designers' collections from Calvin Klein to Proenza Schouler. The Parisian collections ranged from Chanel to Alexander McQueen and in Milan, from Gucci to Prada.
Here, Mermelstein is on a journey through a world that is often both idealized and criticized. Originally commissioned as editorial work, the images elicit an anthropological response only an outsider interested only in the discovery of rituals and costumes unavailable to others could describe. Mermelstein's attention is focused on the culture surrounding the fashion industry rather than the fashion itself. Despite any familiarity with his subjects, whether it's the avenues of Manhattan, his neighborhood in Brooklyn or backstage at Paris' Grand Palais, Mermelstein is consistently caught in foreign territory, resorting to what he does best, merging an intense streetwise sensibility with all its grittiness, humor, humanity and rough grace with the glossy, cosmetic world of fashion's facade.