Ellen Von Unwerth | REVENGE | 29 March — 10 May 2007

Ellen von Unwerth is a legend maker. Being a legend herself in fashion photography world. Her portfolio contains unique photo-stories for such prestigious editions as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, L’Umo Vogue and I-D. She won the first prize at the Fashion Photography International Festival in 1991.Apart from photography — music clips for the celebrities and even films are among her works. Ellen manages to make some unique shots, and the secret of her success is that unrestrained jolly playful atmosphere she inspires on the location. Ellen doesn’t like static posing, fancies movement, pace and energy of the models instead, — pictures are often a bit smudged because of that. This relaxed unstructured and very intimate approach enables her to liberate models completely and create truly unique and extremely provocative photo shoots. Her modeling past might be one of the reasons — since she was 20 years old she’s been posing for the most known photographers of the world, such as Helmut Newton and Oliviero Toscani. Sincere sympathy might be the real key : Ellen falls in love with every person she is to photograph . Models do trust her totally in return , ready to take any risk or provocation. Risk is familiar to Ellen first hand , in her school years she seriously fell for circus, spent days and nights there and took part in the performance as knife thrower assistant ... Probably it is that magic atmosphere of fiery and fun embracing her those days, that still serves her as a source of inspiration sustaining her bold creative vision of beauty.

“Her pictures are sexy and full of marvelous sense of humor. They are never vulgar and always funny. She used to be a model herself , so she knows how it is to stand in front of the camera”.
Eva Herzigova

“ She’s got much more liberated and witty approach, than the rest of the standard photographers. And it seems to me that is exactly what makes her so charming”
Anna Vintour, editor in chief of american Vogue
“ Ellen — is a person of tremendous energy and enormous charm. I am not the least surprised that models agree to participate in the most risky projects ventured by Ellen. Obviously this is not just an honor but an interesting game as well. “Revenge” is a huge ironic provocation, Ellen’s cunning vengeance to the petty bourgeoisie, puffed up with fat”.
Alyona Doletskaya, editor in chief of the russian Vogue

The project Revenge is one of the brightest in Ellen Von Unwert’s work. The exhibition made it all over the world, being hosted by the celebrated NY gallery Staley&Wise. A beautiful erotic story is plotted here by Ellen in her usual provocative manner. We are witnessing a sexual game at the location of a country estate. Three young women arrive at the duchess' house anticipating a quiet weekend, but to find something very different... “Revenge” illustrates all the attributes of the sweet captivity, like an encyclopedia : chains, ropes, masks, corsets and shackles. In those games between the characters — girls, duchess, her chauffeur and horseman — danger is intricately intertwined with fun and indications of nowadays life with it’s devilish pace .