Ellen von Unwerth
A scrub a day, Bavaria
2015

About the Item

In this picture you can see a naked woman who takes a bath in milk and scrubs her back with a big brush. In "Heimat" (german for homeland) invites viewers on a photographic journey through her childhood homeland of Bavaria. Her lavishly staged series delights with erotically charged images tinged with a touch of nostalgia and full of lust for life. The native of southern Germany presents her repertoire inspired by Helmut Newton, relating humorous, lively, and cheeky narratives featuring a mostly female cast. Her images convey a strong love for nature, a seemingly omnipresent religiosity, and a playful approach to the attributes and attractions typical of the region, making a visit to this exhibition both a sensual and visual treat. Ellen von Unwerth worked as a top model in the fashion industry for ten years, before taking up the camera to become one of the world’s most sought-after fashion photographers. Her photographs have appeared in countless magazines, including Vogue, Interview, Vanity Fair, and iD, and she has worked on high-profile advertising campaigns for the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Guess, Diesel, and Chanel. The fashion and music photographer lives and works in Paris and New York.

Creator:
Ellen von Unwerth (1954, German)
Creation Year:
2015
Dimensions:
Height: 23.63 in (60 cm)Width: 15.75 in (40 cm)
Medium:
Archival Pigment
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Edition 10.
Gallery Location:
Munich, DE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU76633486411
View Invoice

Shop All Ellen von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth is a director and photographer whose bold and erotic images of women have left an indelible mark on the visual landscape of the fashion world.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, von Unwerth was a model in Paris for nearly a decade before turning to photography. Her 1989 images of Claudia Schiffer for a Guess jeans campaign, echoing the playfully feminine style of 1950s pinups, earned both Schiffer and von Unwerth wide attention. Over the years, her work has been featured regularly in magazines like Interview, Vanity Fair, Vogue, I-D and The Face, appearing on covers and in both editorial and commercial contexts. In 1991, she won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography.

Von Unwerth’s 1995 photoshoot of Drew Barrymore for Playboy magazine is among her most popular work and, coupled with an array of album covers for such artists as Janet Jackson and Britney Spears, gave her standing as a celebrity photographer beyond the borders of the fashion world. Von Unwerth’s pictures have a distinctive look and feel, with saturated colors and dense compositions, while also, in certain cases, paying homage to great photographers of the 20th century.

The 2015 Tree of Love, Bavaria, in which a nude model reclines inside the heart-shaped hollow of an enormous decaying trunk, recalls Edward Weston’s sensuous use of the body’s geometry in his compositions. And the dramatically lit Tic Tac Toe from 2010, showing a scantily clad woman posing on a city street at night, evokes Helmut Newton’s atmospheric photograph of a model wearing Yves St. Laurent’s Le Smoking jacket, shot for French Vogue in 1975.

Von Unwerth has published several books of her photographs, including Revenge, in 2003, and Fräulein, in 2009. Those volumes have been joined by one showcasing the photos of her series “Heimat,” in which she playfully combines visual tropes of traditional Bavarian life with her signature eroticism and wit. She is represented by several dealers, including the Staley-Wise Gallery, in New York, and Galerie Trabant, in Kitzbühel, Austria.

Find original Ellen von Unwerth photography on 1stDibs.