The painter has a brush, the sculptor a chisel, and the writer a pen. In the case of Cathleen Naundorf, the tool is a large-format Deadorff or Plaubel camera, both unusual instruments in the current practice of fashion photography, with which she creates some of the most striking images of couture – many so impressive as to appear like classical murals, or found images from a former and more glamourous era. Naundorf herself was born in 1968 in Weißenfels an der Saale in in Northern Germany (coincidentally the same hometown as Horst P. Horst), studied photography in Munich, and began her career as a backstage photographer for Paris shows in the mid-to-late Nineties. Since then she’s developed a unique technique of using the characteristic quirks of Polaroid – once again, an anachronistic technology, though hardly without its own warmth and charm – playing with shadow and light and developing a visual language entirely her own. This book represents a collection of six years of work with some of the world’s most celebrated haute couture designers, and includes exquisite pieces by Chanel, Dior, Gaultier, Lacroix, Elie Saab and Valentino, all framed in Naundorf’s unique vernacular.
Available from Prestel
Text by Ga-Young Park