Miles Aldridge: Virgin Mary. Supermarkets. Popcorn

Miles Aldridge has been one of the most sought-after international fashion photographers since the 1990s and achieved fame through his highly stylised, psychedelic style with quotes from film, art history and pop culture.

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  – Immaculée #2, 2007

• – Ralph Fiennes, 2016

• – Untitled (aer Cattelan) #3, 2016

His elaborately staged images are reminiscent of film sets. Flawlessly smooth surfaces and stereotypical femininity reinforce the artificial effect of the images, which are held in a palette of rich and shimmering colours and are all photographed on film.

The show reflects three strands of his cosmos: The Virgin Mary refers to the religious paintings of artists such as Caravaggio, who create theatrical moments through dramatic lighting, costumes and staging. The supermarket is a metaphor for consumer society and the hope of self-optimisation through the therapeutic effect of consumption. Finally, popcorn stands for the influence of cinema in Aldridge's work. Auteur film directors such as Hitchcock, Lynch and Fellini served as a source of inspiration for his style.

The exhibition at Fotografiska Berlin is Miles Aldridge's (*1964, London) largest retrospective to date with around 80 pictures. Among the series is (after Cattelan) from 2015, in which the artist Maurizio Cattelan invited Aldridge to react to Cattalan's sculptures over the course of a night together in a Parisian museum.

Runtime: Fri, 02/02/2024 to Sun, 05/05/2024

Takes place here:

• Fotografiska Berlin