Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
Ines Van Lamsweerde was born in Amsterdam in 1963 and Vinoodh Matadin in 1961 in Amsterdam where he then started studying Fashion Design in 1981 for four years.
They met in 1986 when Van Lamsweerde was still an Art student at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. After she graduated in 1990, they became partners professionally and personally.
They were amongst the first to introduce digital manipulation to their work, working on a broad range of subjects including sexuality, identity and superficiality.
Van Lamsweerde helped them catch people’s attention when she started working at the PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York in 1992 and produced two of her best known piece of work “Final Fantasy” and “Thank You Thighmaster”. In those two pictures she worked on mixing bodies from different ages, or interchanging body parts with them of a doll. In 1995 she published “The Forest” this time manipulating images of men by adding feminine body parts to them.
In 1997 they worked for the first time with Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag the French Art duo better know under the name M/M. Together they collaborated on Yohji Yamamoto and Balenciaga advertising campaigns and on Björk’s music video “Hidden Place”.
The two photographer’s work has been published in magazines such as the French, British, Japanese, Italian, and American editions of Vogue Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Self Service, GQ, Visionaire, W Magazine, Man About Town and Purple Fashion, to only name a few.
They have also worked on many advertising campaigns for brands amongst which Chloé, Stella McCarteny, Viktor & Rolf, Gap, Jean Paul Gaultier, Roberto Cavalli, Lancôme, Jimmy Choo and Yves Saint Laurent to only name a few out of their very long list of collaborations.
In 2011 they collaborated with Lady Gaga for V Magazine.
Inez and Vinoodh, the talented photography duo, have left their mark in the fashion industry, capturing campaigns for renowned brands like Chanel, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu. Their creativity expanded beyond fashion as they ventured into directing for artists, producing music videos and single covers. Notably, they collaborated with Kanye West and Paul McCartney on the single cover for “Only One,” and directed Rihanna’s video for “FourFiveSeconds,” featuring West and McCartney.
Their ongoing collaboration with Icelandic artist Björk has resulted in several striking music videos and high-profile magazine editorials since 1999. In 2019, they partnered with Mene, co-founded by Pablo Picasso’s granddaughter, for a jewellery collection. Additionally, they released a line of jewellery in collaboration with New York brand Ten Thousand Things.
After permanently returning to New York in 1994, Inez and Vinoodh contributed to prestigious fashion publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Interview, among others. Their film work includes capturing supermodel Kate Moss dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and directing Lady Gaga’s music video for “Applause” in 2013.
The duo’s impressive body of work was showcased in the retrospective exhibition “Pretty Much Everything: Photographs 1985–2010,” featuring 300 works from 25 years. Their monograph, “Pretty Much Everything,” released in 2011, contains essays, fiction, and lyrics by various artists, making it a captivating visual and literary experience.
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin Biography
