Gucci

The photographic medium is strongly connected to the world of fashion, fuelled by early fashion photographers like Edward Steichen and Richard Avedon. Vogue Magazine, as one of the world’s most important fashion magazines, publishes and largely dictates through images what counts as fashionable and is ‘en vogue’. But what happens when we don’t look at the image itself, but at its reproductions? This question forms the core of the work by visual artist Egon Van Herreweghe.

Instead of making photographs himself, Van Herreweghe transforms existing photographs from Vogue magazines by using acetone to distort the ink. The process results in painting-like, alienating images, such as the work shown here, from the series Vogue Paintings. Whereas fashion photographs on billboards and in bus stops often just flash by, Van Herreweghe manages to get viewers to stop and take a good look at his work. His art urges us to reflect on the use and consumption of visual material in our daily lives.