Twin Picks: The Horror Show!

Ray Stevenson, The Bromley, 1978 (c) Ray Stevenson.jpg

A giant fanged mouth frames the entrance to the subterreanean space of Somerset house on London’s embankment this winter.

Presenting some of the greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, The Horror Show! examines how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.

An immersive exhibition through over 200 artworks and culturally significant artefacts, the exhibition presents modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch through 1970s punk to the revolutionary potential of modern witchcraft, showing how “the anarchic alchemy of horror – its subversion, transgression and the supernatural – can help make sense of the world around us”.

Juno Calypso , A Dream in Green, Courtesy of the artist

Horror not only allows us to express our deepest fears; it gives a powerful voice to the marginalised and society’s outliers, providing us with tools to overcome our anxieties and imagine a radically different future. 

The exhibition is an invitation to imagine a radically different future through outliers and marginalised persons and practices. The Horror Show! is co-curated by BAFTA nominated filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard with curator Claire Catterall and open until 19th Feb 2022.

Twin meets: Ninni Nummela

Ninni Nummela is a professional make-up artist known for her editorial work and plethora of celebrity clients. She has a keen eye for touching simplicity, focusing on the enhancement of natural beauty. Emma Clarke caught up with Nummella to talk with her about a recent project using Chanel Noir Allure – Chanel’s latest innovative mascara.

What were your main influences/inspirations for the look created with Liz Collins, using Chanel Noir Allure? We wanted to create a story with beautiful moments on a late summer’s day, where an effortless beauty look with naturally radiant skin brings focus to the Chanel Noir Allure mascara. Lived in mascara, like she’s been wearing it all day; swimming, running, lounging. Nothing too perfect. 

What about Chanel’s style is synonymous with your creative outlook?
I love the understated elegance of Chanel. The simplicity and beauty. It’s very much synonymous with my work and how I approach beauty. 

Chanel Noir Allure’s design is indicative of simplicity. What is your definition of both and how is that reflected in your work?
To me Chanel makeup is iconic; the design, colours and compacts all reflect a true elegance. The Chanel Noir Allure mascara is the epitome of Chanel; sleek, beautiful and easy to use.

My work is very much less is more. I always strive to enhance the individual beauty of the person I’m working with by enhancing elements and never applying too much.

How do you negotiate the balance between an iconic beauty brand and innovation?
I always try to innovate and create looks that will inspire, while always reflecting the essence of the iconic Chanel brand.

What do you envision the future of beauty and style to be?
I envision individuality will play a big role, in both beauty and style. Self-expression and inclusivity. 

Twin Issue XXVII

BUY NOW

Issue 27 of Twin has landed! And we’re really excited about this issue, which features Lara Stone as one of the cover stars, alongside Ajok Madel; and brings you the best of fashion for the new autumn/winter season. Think dinner-time jewels, climactic couture, self-expression, the new grunge, how to dress up for going out now and an entirely new take on the enfant terrible.

Inside, we speak with the actress Betsey Brown, who shares how rejection has only served to make her stronger and succeed in her own inimitable way; and we catch up with the IRL-and-URL designer Charli Cohen, who is making waves in the hybrid fashion world. We look at why boobs are in fashion in both the art and style worlds; meanwhile there are interviews with the multi-hyphenate Howardena Pindell, photographer Hannah Starkey, artist Megan Rooney and curator Laura Amann. 

BUY NOW

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

CHANEL: Beauty Backstage

The CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-To-Wear Collection draws inspiration from arthouse film Last Year in Marienbad (1961) by Alain Renais. A haunting classic, the fiolm takes place in an eerie Marienbad and splices together scenes in a non-linear series of images and set pieces, and similarly the CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-to-Wear collection is described as a collage.

The collection is imagined by Virginie Viard as a “free stroll through fragments, it exposes an imaginary world confronted with itself, offering variations on the theme of allure” as she explains, “the films we have seen, those that possess us and those we invent for ourselves, Marienbad, the Nouvelle Vague, the allure according to Gabrielle Chanel, Karl, the night, feathers, sequins, heels: I like it when things get mixed up”.

The collection seams together bows, boas, rhinestone boots, jersey worked like scales and chiffon tracing contours of the body, flowing and dreamlike.

Virginie explains, “whether it’s her [Kristen Stewart], or the other women I dress, I need to feel that they like the clothes anyway. But, of the people around me, she is the closest to Gabrielle Chanel, at least to my idea of her. She understands CHANEL, its clothes. And with her, it becomes even more modern. This collection, it’s also her.”

The makeup mirrored the timeless colour palette of the show with nude shades on the eyes and lips to compliment each models skin tone.

The lashes were kept bare with only a light dusting of Les 4 Ombres Tweed on the lids.

@chanel.beauty

#CHANELMakeup

#CHANELSpringSummer

Tyler Mitchell presents Chrysalis

Opening this evening at London’s Gagosian gallery, this large scale photographic exhibition showcases the work of Altanta-born photographer Tyler Mitchell, now reknowned for his distinctive editorials including Beyoncé’s cover for Vogue. Describing the exhibition he explains,

“Collectively, these moments become figments of an imaginative psychic state of being, one in which radiance, resistance, restraint, comfort, and full human agency exist.“

The duality of organic and manmade, staged and naturalistic combine in Cage, which shows a woman posing before a painted backdrop of a garden surrounded by a white picket fence.

Tyler Mitchell, A Glint of Possibility, 2022, archival pigment print, 50 × 40 inches (127 × 101.6 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP © Tyler Mitchell, image courtesy the artist; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; and Gagosian

For Chrysalis, the New York photographer has continued his exloration of youth and coming of age while reflecting on the history of photographic images of Black people, particularly in the American South. The images bring into focus a sense of spirituality, transformation and aspiration.

As the gallery describes, “Chrysalis presents images of Black men and women in idyllic states of leisure and repose, safe and unencumbered by social expectations. In a photograph that shares its title with the exhibition, a young man sleeps on a blanket-covered bed, within the protective cocoon of a mosquito net.”

TYLER MITCHELL
Chrysalis
October 6–November 12, 2022
Gagosian 17–19 Davies Street, London

Mitchell’s work is also to be featured in The New Black Vanguard, an exhibition curated by Antwaun Sargent that will open at Saatchi Gallery, London, on October 28, 2022.

Tyler Mitchell, Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, September 2022

Agnes Costa @ Flou Paris

Marton Perlaki

An intimate photography show opened in Paris last week for one evening only, organised by Agnes Costa in association with Rapid Eye Darkroom . invited artists to respond to the brief “blurry”. The intimate show played host to the bright lights of the photography world including Drew Vickers, Maxime Imbert and Larissa Hoffman.

Louis Canadas

As Agnes explains, “I used to organise these kind of exhibitions at Rapid eye when I was working there – I would give a theme (we did ‘Blue’, ‘Pink’ and ‘Woman’ at Rapid eye few years ago) – and then ask a few of my friends to hand print something. Everyone was free to print anything they wanted around that theme, so we would always end up with something very versatile and interesting…I moved to Paris to open my own darkroom here and it made sense to keep organising these kind of events that bring people together and celebrate hand printing which is something very dear to my heart!”

Thomas Christiani

The exhibition took place at Flou, 13 Rue de Mont Louis, 75011 Paris

BTS exclusive: Twin presents BMUET(TE) at LFW

For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week.

Below are the highlights from BMUET(TE)’s presentation Spring-Summer 2023…

BTS exclusive: Twin presents Sinéad O’Dwyer at LFW

For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to roam around the shows and document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week.

Below are the highlights from Sinéad O’Dwyer‘s presentation Spring-Summer 2023…

BTS exclusive: Twin presents TOGA at LFW

For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to roam around the shows and document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week…

Below are the highlights from TOGA‘s presentation Spring-Summer 2023

TWIN PICKS: Terratypes

Born out of the earth photos series documenting Dartmoor and the Scottish Highlands, Terratypes is Tanoa Sasraku’s latest solo exhibition presented by Spike Island. 

Sheets of blank newsprint, hand-rubbed with foraged natural pigments, take on geological and geographical information in ochre, graphite and manganese. These Terratypes – inspired by the material structure of the Fante Asafo flags of coastal Ghana and geometric forms found in Tartan cloth, circuitry and pinnacles of rock – form the bulk of Sasraku’s work. These are then stacked, cut and stitched to form geometric compositions andthe paper is steeped in water then torn to reveal layers that expose and encrypt details about the materiality of the land. 

Paper, photographs, and bronzes build upon the artist’s ongoing research into hostile wildlands and themes of energy, mythology and memories stored within the British landscape. Torn pieces from the Terratypes are flattened, scanned and enlarged into Liths: monolithic structures that bring to mind Stonehenge and other standing stone formations. Giving and withholding, unknowing and mysterious, these structures seem as doorways to an alternate landscape. 

A series of cast bronzes complete the exhibition. Intense concentrations of pigment are held in their centres to reflect the energy flows of the land. Emotional memory runs through each of the works, dwelling on our understanding and connection to the rural environment. 

Tanoa Sasraku is a British artist whose practice shifts between sculpture, drawing and filmmaking. She graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2018 and is currently studying at the Royal Academy Schools. 

Terratypes is on display from Saturday 28 May to Sunday 17 July 2022 at Spike Island.

TWIN PICKS: Solidarity Prints

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has reverberated across all areas of life, the art world included. Recognizing the risks and dangers Ukrainian artists now face, a group of international artists have come together to raise funds and support their peers through the sale of their works. 

Organised by Adam Broomberg, the initiative sees a group of contemporary artists donating an artwork each as an open edition print. Priced at €200, the profit from the sale will go towards emergency support for their peers caught up in the spiralling crisis. 

Originally launched in March 2022, another 60 artists have joined for the launch of the second round. In order to address the “hierarchy of empathy that this war has exposed” this round of proceeds will go specifically to BIPoC artists and their families. The non-profit organisations @eachoneteachone_official in collaboration with @savvycontemporary will help facilitate emergency travel, shelter, financial and longer-term support. At this point in the crisis, thousands have died, millions have fled, and uncertainty remains. 

Featured contemporary artists include Hito Steyerl, Pierre Huyghe, Nan Goldin, Isaac Julien, Thomas Struth, Tacita Dean, Rosemarie Trockel, Luc Tuymans, Elizabeth Peyton, Thomas Demand, Matthew Barney, Jeremy Deller, Laure Prouvost, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Lisa Brice, Julian Schnabel, Camille Henrot, Subodh Gupta, Sam Durant, Fiona Banner, Anne Imhof, Cyprien Gaillard, and Thomas Hirschhorn.

Since 2013 the non-profit organisation Artists at Risk has launched 26 residences for  persecuted artists around the world. Operating at the intersection of human rights and the arts, Artists at Risk is at the forefront of the refugee crisis as it affects artists and cultural workers. All artwork purchases will directly benefit artists fleeing war and persecution. 

solidarityprints.com

TWIN PICKS: BIENNALE GHERDËINA ∞ PERSONES PERSONS

Typical art biennials take place in large urban centres. Considering forms of personhood in wildlife and landscapes, the Biennale Gherdëina is an exception to the rule, located in the unique setting of the Unesco World Heritage Centre of the Dolomites. Opening on 20 May 2022, BIENNALE GHERDËINA ∞ PERSONES PERSONS is a series of installations, performances, sculptures, sound pieces, textile works, walks and interactive experiences, all across and in response to the landscape. 

In its eight edition, the Biennale asks how artistic expressions contribute to the recognition of Earth’s rights and themes of migration, seasonal displacement and transhumance in the region and resonating landscapes. 

Doris Ghetta, founder and Director of Biennale Gherdëina explains, “we are living in what has been described as “the era of living creatures”….this means that, if we are to plan a sustainable society, we can no longer incline towards an anthropocentric worldview but need to centre our way of seeing reality around all living things: from air to plants, water, snow, animals and, of course, human beings”

The Biennale is curated by Lucia Pietroiusti, who works at the intersection of art, ecology and systems typically outside of the gallery format, and Filipa Ramos, Strategic Advisor for Ecology at Serpentine, London, and co-founder of the climate-justice focused non-profit, Radical Ecology. 

BIENNALE GHERDËINA ∞ PERSONES PERSONS features artists Etel Adnan, Chiara Camoni, Alex Cecchetti, Gabriel Chaile, Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, Jimmie Durham, Simone Fattal, Barbara Gamper, Kyriaki Goni, Judith Hopf, Ignota, Karrabing Film Collective, Lina Lapelyte, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Eduardo Navarro, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Angelo Plessas, Tabita Rezaire, Sergio Rojas, Giles Round, Thaddäus Salcher, Martina Steckholzer, Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser), Ana Vaz and Nuno da Luz, and Bruno Walpoth.

TWIN PICKS: The Martine Rose SS23 Digital Experience

A fly-on-the-wall peep into Martine Rose’s latest runway show, the SS23 digital experience continues the legacy of “What We Do All Day”. Conceived and created in collaboration with International Magic, the website extends the aesthetics of the new collection and runway show into the digital realm. The footage is a CCTV-inspired 12-CAM viewing experience captured on cameras hidden inside the physical show held inside a railway arch in Vauxhall, South London. 

Referencing nightclubs, after-hours bars, and dark rooms, the footage gives viewers a taste of virtual voyeurism. As for the clothes, Martine Rose once again plays with proportions offering shrunken silhouettes inspired by “the feeling of wedging yourself into something a bit too small.” This is paired with explorations of larger volumes, playing around with the drape of a coat on a peg, and tension explored through tailoring, referencing “awkward Friday-night-office-drink-doorway-gropes”.

“Martine Rose is always interested in the relation between fashion and our ordinary realities, and this season we began with the everyday, unthinking tussles we have dressing and undressing; Fighting to get into your own clothes, or trying to get into someone else’s. Theclothing accidents involved in urgent sexual encounters or hurried dressing afterwards. Investigating how garments are pulled against the body and their resulting shape or attitude” notes the SS23 collection press release.


A real-time experience, the footage can be found looping perpetually at ss.23.martine-rose.com.

Twin picks: Process

Creativity emerges from countless perspectives. That is the central message of Process, a temporary installation at Alexander McQueen’s Mayfair store. Helming the British label since McQueen’s death in 2010, creative director Sarah Burton invited twelve artists to respond to the Pre Autumn / Winter 2022 womenswear collection. Each artist was selected for their unique approach to art and offered complete creative freedom. The result? A rich dialogue between the work and the chosen designs that takes the creative process as its focus. 

Chilean sculptor Marcela Correa responded to the McQueen polyfaille party dress with hand-crafted miniatures on papier-mache dolls with faces collaged from fashion magazines. Jennie Jieun Lee took inspiration from a red leather dress to develop a ceramic sculpture with a reflective palladium glaze. Interpreting three looks, Ann Cathrin November Høibo created a three-dimensional weave in tea rose satin and grain de powder, apricot polyfaille, ivory tulle, wool, cotton and rayon.

Other artists who contributed include Guinevere Van Seenus, a model and photographer who has walked in McQueen catwalk shows since 1996, Beverly Semmes, Bingyi, Cristina de Middel, Guinever van Seenus, Hope Gangloff, Marcia Kure, Jackie Nickerson, Judas Companion, and Marcia Michael. 

“I wanted to engage in a new creative dialogue with the collection this season and see how the artists interpreted the work that we created in the studio. It’s been very interesting to see how creativity has sprung from so many different perspectives, and the outcomes that have been varied and beautiful,” Burton stated in Alexander McQueen’s press notes.

To celebrate the launch of the collection a 160 page zine detailing each artist’s personal story and engagement with the designs will be available in stores worldwide. Process is available to view at the Alexander McQueen Old Bond Street store until 21 June.

TWIN PICKS: Deana Lawson

Deana Lawson’s work harnesses the tropes of family portraiture to create images at once intimate, familial, and spiritual. This week she has been recognised as the force she is, and awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for having made the most significant contribution to the world of photography in 2022.

The prize was awarded to Lawson at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, in recognition of her 2020 solo exhibition Centropy at Kunsthalle Basel. Fusing the family album with unsettling elements like ‘portals’ into other worlds, her photography reclaims the Black subject as “creative, godlike beings.” Though her sitters are mostly strangers, Lawson describes her works as the process of building “an ever-expanding mythological extended family” to explore intergenerational relationships and their effects within Black culture.

Brett Rogers OBE, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery and chair of the Jury that named her winner, said:

“Deana Lawson is a deserved winner of this year’s prize not least for the sheer inventiveness and complexity of her approach to image making. Her work, which reframes and reclaims the Black experience, harnesses the traditional and the experimental and opens up a very unique connection between the everyday and the mystical. Her subject matter sits somewhere between the ‘here and now’ and the past, a person and a people, the staged and the naturalistic, in a manner which is not didactic or issue driven, but genuinely radical”.

The presentation at The Photographers’ Gallery marks Lawson’s first institutional show in the UK. The exhibition showcasing the four shortlisted artists for 2022 – Anastasia Samoylova, Jo Ractliffe, Deana Lawson and Gilles Peress – is curated by TPG’s Katrina Schwarz and will be displayed at The Photographers’ Gallery until 12 June 2022.

TWIN PICKS: NEW AGE B2B – Stonehenge to Jungle

Ever wondered what a party flyer from a 1973 Stonehenge free festival looks like? Or a design promoting a 1980 illegal warehouse party? NEW AGE B2B – Stonehenge to Jungle scratches that itch.  A compendium of flyers and collectibles from subculture archivist Toby Mott charts the origin of hedonistic rebellion and utopia.

The comprehensive collection by the London-based artist traverses the Stonehenge and Free Festivals, through to 1980s illegal warehouse parties and acid house, sound system and dub clashes, rave, and finally jungle. With art and design direction by Jamie Reid, former art director of Dazed and Confused magazine, party flyers from the 1970s to 2000 are sourced and curated from the Mott Collection. Known for his work with the Grey Organisation – an artist’s collective that was active in the 1980s – and for his fashion brand Toby PiImlico, Mott went on to establish an archive of British popular culture from punk to rave.

575 entries of flyers and other collectables showcase the visions of masters like Pez and Junior Tomlin – the Salvador Dalí of Rave – charting youth rebellions for a generation. Alongside the artwork, the book features interviews with the trailblazing designers alongside documentary photographer Alan Lodge, record producer Chris Peckings, DJ and Spiral Tribe member Ixyndamix among many more. 

Moving beyond the music, Mott offers an insightful look back on British party culture that digs into its roots. Bringing together reggae, rave and sound system culture, the collection charts the often overlooked impact of the Black British community on rave music. 

ICA | Book Launch: New Age B2B – Stonehenge to Jungle.
New Age B2B – Stonehenge to Jungle is published by Corina Manu, Cultural Traffic and Dashwood Books.

TWIN MEETS: Incubator 22

Following the success of Incubator 21, Angelica Jopling is back with Incubator 22, a six-week-long programme spotlighting six new London-based emerging artists who have never had a solo show. The consecutive exhibitions showcase London-based emerging artists, Mary Stephenson, Xavia Duke Richards, John Richard, Archie Boon, C. Lucy R. Whitehead, and Alicja Biala.

In residence at London’s A. Society in Chiltern Street, Twin caught up with the exhibition’s founder and curator, Angelica Jopling, to discuss platforming young artists and her collaborative approach to curation. 

Can you explain the intention behind Incubator 22?

The idea for ‘Incubator’ stemmed from a failed grant proposal I wrote in 2018. I wanted to provide a platform for young artists to show their work in a collaborative space with maximum freedom. The general aim was, and continues to be, to reflect the energy and shifting cultural face of a city through the eyes of emerging artists. One of the hardest stages of an artist’s career is the beginning when they’re attempting to articulate a sensibility. Emerging artists rarely have the opportunity to present their work in a solo capacity. Yet this can paradoxically be a great catalyst for artists to take risks, be experimental, and create a cohesive body of work for a show.

Can you explain how you decide which artists to feature?

It varies. I typically visit many different artist’s studios before deciding who will be shown at Incubator. Beyond the work itself, the attributes I’m most drawn to in an artist are a genuine passion and confidence in their work as well as a distinct vision of what they wish to execute in the space. 

How do you approach your role as curator?

I love working with artists at the beginning of their careers and giving them the space to create freely. I like to spend a lot of active time in the studios, discussing their process, refining ideas, and understanding their inspirations and what drives their work. All of which influences the approach when it’s time to install. The collaborative approach extends to my work with Clara Galperin -Incubator’s curatorial consultant – who has helped to shape the vision. 

Incubator 22 is now open at A. Society, 2 Chiltern Street, London, W1U 7PR by appointment

TWIN PICKS: Palm* Photo Prize 2022 Shortlist

A landmark event in the annual photography calendar, The Palm* Photo Prize shines a spotlight on the photographers to watch. The team behind the prize has announced its shortlist for 2022. With an overwhelming 6800+ submissions this year, they have painstakingly whittled it down to 108 photographs. And they do not disappoint.

A mix of portraiture and landscape works, the shortlist reflects the international appeal of this competition. From London to Brooklyn, Kyiv to Tel Aviv, there is a breadth to this year’s shortlist that showcases each photographer’s unique aesthetic. 

Michelle Sank’s posed portrait of Miss Drag SA, as well as Megan Eagle’s intimate portrait of a mother breastfeeding her young child are standouts in the selection.  Elsewhere there’s Camille Lemoine’s capture of a young girl astride a horse and a simple evocation of play in a black and white portrait of a boy skimming stones by Isabel Martin.

The judges, which include the likes of Alastair McKimm and Lola Paprocka, will work on the selection of 20 finalists, and eventually decide on first and second place. Shortlisted images will also be in the running for the Canvas Represents Mentorship Award and the People’s Choice Award will be decided by a voting system open to the public via the website. 


The Palm* Photo Prize exhibition will be on display at 10 14 Gallery from 5th May – 5th June, sponsored by Spectrum & INK and partners Picter, Canvas Represents, Lock Studios, 10 14 Gallery, Labyrinth Photographic and i-D.

Twin Issue XXVI

BUY NOW


“Being human, our capacity to imagine allows us to re-envision the future in new and provocative ways.” says Kate Wong, Chinese-Canadian curator, writer and poet working as assistant curator at the Serpentine Galleries. Wong’s practice is currently centred on understanding the dehumanising dimensions of humanism, and her comment speaks to wider themes of our latest issue, where we’re platforming the creatives who work with unfamiliar and irregular to creatively challenge the status quo.

In issue 26, we spotlight on LVMH shortlisted, zero-waste designer Róisín Pierce who creates effervescent clothes from tulle, organza and satin, and uses texture to reflect on the troubled history of women in Ireland. A series on radical gaming champions the women bringing an unconventional approach to the immersion and interaction in video games. And one of the UK’s most talented songwriters, Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin, explores the sound of feeling. Plus the original vibe shifter Michéle Lamy curates and stars in a dynamic series of portraits that harness the energy of life, joy and power – shot by Danielle Levitt.

In fashion, photographer Andy Jackson brings a heap of nostalgia to his series of year-book style portraits. Ina Lekiewicz captures big energy retro florals, while Misha Taylor takes us forward with the next generation of formalwear. Looking at the shape of things to come, Georgina Devy shoots a series of spectacular, architecturally-inspired monochrome looks, while in ‘The Great Outdoors’ photographer Lorenz Schmidl and stylist Beatriz Maues take us back to natural pleasures, revelling in the strangeness of our glorious world.

BUY NOW

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

TWIN PICKS: I’d like to get to know you

I’d like to get to know you is a tentative exploration into a reimagined sibling relationship against the backdrop of British summertime. Shot at their mother’s house in rural Devon over the course of one summer, the uniquely singular relationship between sisters is explored and reframed. For the intimate series Francesca Allen turns the camera on her younger sister, Alida, and unravels the theme of family ties, re-tied. 

The sun-soaked images of poppies in bloom and swims in rivers, sports shorts and high-legged swimsuits, paints a vivid picture of a complex sisterly relationship and reveals, not only in how Francesca sees Alida, but how Alida sees herself. Intimacy and confrontation – a push and a pull, – are seen in Allen’s personal approach. Allen admits her and Alida’s relationship growing up was never particularly close. Portraiture, in this instance, is configured as a two-sided exchange opening up space for empathy and exploration.

The London-based photographer straddles the worlds of fashion and documentary photography, across themes of friendship, female bonds, and interchange between photographer and subject. Her first monograph Aya saw Allen spend a month in Japan photographing musician Aya Yanase. This second monograph is a testament to her developing practice and a celebration of sisterly bonds and the beauty of the British countryside.


I’d like to get to know you is available to buy from 23 March 2022. The exhibition is open by appointment at 1014 Gallery, Dalston, London

Join the mailing list

Search