The work of art and photography duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin has defined visual culture, pushing boundaries both aesthetically and technically through their work with figures including Björk, Kate Moss, Lady Gaga, Cindy Sherman, Bill Murray and themselves.
The partners in life and art have collaborated with Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and have shot for every top fashion and culture magazine you can think of, including their series on America’s top 50 creatives for Wallpaper* in 2024. Their early adoption of digital manipulation in the Nineties put them at the forefront of portraiture at a time when experimentation with computer technology in image making was in its emergence. The result is a 40-year body of work made with the declared intention of striking a balance between the moment and timelessness and to ‘destabilise the conventional promise of photography as a purveyor of truth.’
(Image credit: @Stephane Feugere Photography)
Marfa, Van horn + Jeff Davis County, Texas on August 4-5, 2025
(Image credit: Inez & Vinoodh)
In a preview of work in their retrospective at Kunstmuseum Den Haag opening in March 2026, ‘Can Love Be a Photograph’ ,they are showing images from the project ‘Think Love’ at India Mahdavi’s Project Room #21, in Paris. This project, which opened to coincide with Paris Photo, showcases Inez & Vinoodh’s series created with the iPhone 17 in Marfa Texas.
‘Think Love’, created as part of the project ‘Joy, in 3 Parts’ is a series of portraits of couple Charles Matadin and Natalie Brumley. Curated by ex–director of photography for The New York Times Magazine Kathy Ryan, the project also featured Mickalene Thomas and Trunk Xu.
The couple were shot simply, outside with a translucent piece of red fabric, in a series that explores both the intimacy and the euphoria of romantic love and desire. The landscape plays a role in some of the images as a stirring backdrop for the young lovers.
The collaboration with iPhone is a natural progression in Inez & Vinoodh’s use of tech throughout their career, who see it as a way of pushing the boundaries of art and portrait making. In the exaggerated elements of a portrait, they create insights into their subjects or their art, extending the influence of the photograph. They were the first to start using computers to alter the human body in ways that are very normal now, and used them to heighten meaning over a mythical human physical perfection.
Marfa, Van horn + Jeff Davis County, Texas on August 4-5, 2025
(Image credit: Inez & Vinoodh)
Having worked together since 1986, they have an intuitive way of making images, with one taking photographs and the other observing. There is no fixed role and most of their shoots take only fifteen minutes, with the duo demonstrating an apt way of gaining the trust of their subjects that means the process is very fluid, they have said.
In trying to liberate photography from the moment, they have created timeless images with both avant garde and classic qualities featuring well-known figures of recent times. In putting together the large-scale show, previewed here in Paris, they have taken chronology out of the equation, taking their work out of the order in which it was made and focusing purely on the images.
Inez and Vinoodh’s legacy as image makers is set, but they are still seeking to explore photography, its limitations and its possibilities. Here we see a taster of what’s to come in March 2026, on view in Paris until 12th December.
‘Think Love’ is on view from 13th November – 12th December 2025, India Mahdavi’s Project Room #21
