Model turned photographer
Ellen Von Unwerth has a reputation for pulse-racing shots
WHEN ELLEN VON UNWERTH WAS 13, her mother would dress her up in a hastily copied Chanel suit, knocked up on the family’s sewing machine. A career in fashion clearly beckoned.
Yet von Unwerth is one of the few models who have made a successful transition to the other side of the viewfinder.
Taking up photography in the late 1980s, after her boyfriend gave her a camera, the Bavarianborn bombshell has established a reputation for taking pulse-racing shots that fall just on the right side of erotica.
For her latest exhibition, opening in London this month, von Unwerth has gathered together images shot over the past 15 years. Claudia Schiffer, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman, Kate Moss, Vanessa Paradis, Britney Spears, Eva Mendes, Lindsay Lohan, Carla Bruni and Eva Green all feature – working as a photographer for Vogue, Vanity Fair and i-D, celebrity access has never been a problem. Yet far from simple star-gazing, the retrospective proves that intimate female photography needn’t be leery or voyeuristic.
As von Unwerth says herself: “I like the women to be strong, even Voyager 9 Ladies who Lens [ LONDON ] Photography: Salsa Cuba © Ellen von Unworth courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery if they’re looking raunchy or are in a bordello. They always know what they’re doing.”
Fräulein By Ellen von Unwerth runs 22 October – 21 November at Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, London, www.michaelhoppengallery.com An accompanying book is published 1 October by Taschen, www.taschen.com
