Miu Miu debuts Shifting Viewpoints, a series of portraits shot by Senta Simond and styled by Lotta Volkova depicting female subjects “exposing a new gamut of emotions”
Earlier this year, stylist and AnOther contributor Lotta Volkova collaborated with photographer Julie Greve on a series of portraits for Miu Miu, capturing various young women from Greve’s native Denmark wearing looks from the house (Volkova and Greve also collaborated on a story for the latest issue of AnOther Magazine). Now, Volkova is teaming up with Miu Miu once again, this time working with Geneva-born photographer Senta Simond on another series of portraits of women, titled Shifting Viewpoints.
Simond, herself a contributor to AnOther, has garnered praise for her intimate portraiture – predominantly of women – which explores the nuanced relationship between artist and sitter. “Portraiture is the genre of photography that has always interested me,” Simond has previously told AnOther, “I feel touched by looking at people’s faces... I feel [their emotions are] something I have to catch before the person is changing.”
As such, Simond has referred to the allegorical concept of le rayon vert (the green ray), named after an optical phenomenon whereby a distant spot of green can be seen on the horizon as the sun is rising or setting. In popular culture it has come to stand for a moment of realisation – much down to Jules Verne’s 1882 novel of the same name, whereby sighting the green ray allows you to momentarily read another person’s feelings, much as Simond attempts to do with her portraits (accordingly, her 2017 photo series was titled Rayon Vert).
These photographs continue in a similar style: various women recline on, or lean against, a white backdrop, as Simond captures a moment of expression on their faces (some look wistfully downwards, or squint into the distance; others catch the camera’s gaze). “With subtle angle shifts, Senta Simond destabilises the viewer by introducing a reinterpretation of the subject, a subject that emerges as an alternative character, exposing a new gamut of emotions,” say Miu Miu. “However uncomfortable or serene the characters may appear, there is an evident strength that unites these female figures.”
Each of the subjects wear Miu Miu’s Autumn/Winter 2019 runway and post-runway collections – put together in Volkova’s alluring, idiosyncratic style – with a particular focus on jewellery, “displayed on each character sometimes in excess... highlighting the innate sense of individuality that exists in every Miu Miu girl.”