To Thine Self Be True – Saint Laurent + Daido Moriyama
Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello brings us the next stage of his fashion evolution with a new photography exhibition in Paris
Building on a cultural foundation and understanding we’ve just come to expect from Saint Laurent’s exciting new creative director, this weekend Anthony Vaccarello curates a new photography exhibition in Paris in conjunction with legendary Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama. The exhibition itself forms only one part of a whole project – dubbed ‘Self’ – that seeks to capture the different facets of the Saint Laurent ‘personality’. We’ve all been in those discussion groups or at some point answered the question that asks: “if ‘X’ was a person what kind of person would ‘X’ be?” In Anthony there’s no-one better placed to answer that question on behalf of Saint Laurent. So he’s recruited a roster of artists, photographers and filmmakers to help him present that answer to an eager world.
Daido, much like another amazing Japanese photographer we love – Araki, is himself a legend in the photography world. He’s published more than 80 books to date and won numerous awards in a career spanning more than 50 incredible years. In this exhibition, to be shown during Paris Photo, he gives us a stark visual commentary on society while infusing the images with the core aesthetic and artistic values that underpin Saint Laurent as a fashion house. And true to the heritage of both, the images are not afraid to show the ‘realness’ that sometimes comes with the beauty. It’s the kind of imagery to make you sit and think as well as gaze in wonder – as all the best art should.
The exhibition will be presented at Paris’s Palais Royal housed in a light installation in the Galerie d’Orléans courtyard from 9 – 11th November, 2018. If you’re in Paris this weekend there would be few better ways to spend a couple of hours. If not, fear not. This is just the first instalment of the overall concept. No word as yet on what the next instalment will be, or in conjunction with whom, but it will definitely be worth waiting for if part one is anything to go by.
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To see the next instalment of Anthony Vaccarello’s SELF series click HERE. To see our last Saint Laurent feature click HERE.
