ELLEN VON UNWERTH

One of the most renowned contemporary female photographers, Ellen von Unwerth perfected her craft and built a tremendously successful career, gaining worldwide praise for her depiction and empowerment of women as subjects rather than objects.
At the beginning of the 1990s, when Hollywood actresses dominated magazine covers around the world, the German photographer contributed to the birth of the “Supermodel” cult. Ellen von Unwerth is the photographer who helped launch the supermodel Claudia Schiffer in the early 1990s, first in a picture for ELLE and later with the Guess campaign that gave them both a big break in the fashion industry.
From these beginnings, she has been pivotal in turning fashion models into icons. As both a woman and a former model herself, Ellen von Unwerth is in a special and privileged position in understanding her subjects. The photographer keeps pushing the limits of her art, celebrating female form, playful personality and overt sensuality, empowering women by presenting them as strong, free and independent.
In all her work, Ellen von Unwerth’s charismatic and impish personality is ever present. Through her artistic process the unbridled personality of the subject is explored, revealed and then captured. The results are a body of work idiosyncratically saturated with an evocative whimsy, strident energy and emancipated eroticism.
With this online exhibition, Opera Gallery leaves you with Ellen von Unwerth herself, who will walk you through these artworks, as landmarks of her exceptional career.

For Naomi Campbell’s album cover Baby Woman
Black and white analog print on Baryta paper
100 x 70 cm - 39.4 x 27.6 in




Kate Moss and David Bowie for Q Magazine
Black and white inkjet print on Baryta paper
180 x 120 cm - 70.9 x 47.2 in




Elle Macpherson for a Jimmy Choo Campaign
Black and white inkjet print on baryta paper
230 x 150 cm - 90.6 x 59.1 in



