Inez and Vinoodh: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin met at Amsterdam's Rietveld Academie in the mid-1980s and have worked as a single authorial unit since 1986, splicing couture glamour with early digital retouching, surrealist body distortion and a cool Dutch conceptualism. This mix tracks the fashion-photography titans they refract, the surrealist underlayer of their mutant bodies, their Amsterdam scene, and the music-video and art careers that run alongside the campaigns.

The Kynda mix for Inez and Vinoodh

• Key Influence · White Women by Helmut Newton (1976). Newton's hard-flash, poolside eroticism and narrative menace established the template for fashion images that behave like crime-scene stills — the glossy-but-wrong register Inez and Vinoodh inherited and then digitally mutated. Their airbrushed, sexually ambiguous bodies for Vogue and The Face read as Newton's power games pushed into the Photoshop era, where the retouch itself becomes the fetish rather than the lighting or the pose.
• Influencia Obscura · Die Puppe (The Doll) by Hans Bellmer (1934). Bellmer's photographs of his jointed, reassembled adolescent doll are the deep ancestor of Inez and Vinoodh's early-1990s mutations — faces with eyes erased, children's heads on adult bodies, limbs multiplied. Their breakthrough series pursued exactly Bellmer's project of the female body as rearrangeable object, only with retouching software replacing ball joints and papier-mache, which makes the violence smoother and harder to locate.
• Local Roots · Beach Portraits by Rineke Dijkstra (1992). Dijkstra was working in the Netherlands at exactly the moment Inez and Vinoodh emerged from Amsterdam, and her flash-lit adolescents on European beaches gave Dutch photography its other 1990s export: frontal, unflattering, formally exact. The two practices are mirror images of the same Dutch training — Dijkstra refusing all manipulation, the duo embracing it — and both were absorbed into international art circuits in the same years.
• Beyond the Medium · Cremaster 3 by Matthew Barney (2002). Barney's prosthetic bodies, immaculate production design and slow ritual choreography belong to the same New York art world the duo entered in the 1990s, and his films license precisely their move from still image into moving-image spectacle. Their videos for Bjork and their gallery installations share Cremaster's premise: a body modified past plausibility, filmed with the finish of a luxury campaign rather than a documentary.
• Peer · Go-Sees by Juergen Teller (1999). Teller worked the same 1990s fashion-magazine economy from the opposite direction: raw flash, no retouching, models photographed at his door. He and the duo were both central to the decade's break with 1980s supermodel gloss, appearing in the same titles and campaigns, and the contrast between his deliberate crudeness and their seamless digital polish maps the two routes out of that decade.
• From the Canon · Thank You Thighmaster by Inez and Vinoodh (1993). The series that announced them: airbrushed female bodies given smoothed-over, doll-like genitals and plastic sheen, made when digital retouching was new enough to still feel transgressive. It states the duo's lifelong subject — the manufactured body, desire routed through technology — and explains why their later campaigns for luxury houses always carry a faint uncanniness beneath the perfection.
• Key Collaborator · Vespertine by Björk (2001). Inez and Vinoodh shaped the visual identity of Bjork's most private record, shooting its imagery and directing the 'Hidden Place' video, in which a camera travels across her face in extreme close-up while fluids move over the skin. It is their defining crossover into moving image and the clearest case of their still-photography obsessions — the face as landscape, beauty as biology — surviving the shift to film.
• Legacy · Homes by Harley Weir (2017). Weir belongs to the generation that grew up on the duo's hybrid of luxury commission and personal art project, and she works the same two tracks — campaigns for major houses alongside bodily, textural, sometimes abrasive image-making shown in galleries and books. Her treatment of skin, fluid and surface as the real subject of a fashion picture extends the territory Inez and Vinoodh opened in the 1990s.

What influenced Inez and Vinoodh

• Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Their film of Kate Moss dancing uses Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean.” “The duo has shot supermodel Kate Moss while dancing to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean on film; [ 13 ] they also directed Lady Gaga 's 2013 music video for " Applause ".” (Wikipedia)
• Cremaster 3 by Matthew Barney (2002). Cremaster 3 (Matthew Barney) — culture for Inez and Vinoodh (themoviedb.org)
• Persona by Ingmar Bergman (1966). Persona (Ingmar Bergman) — culture for Inez and Vinoodh (themoviedb.org)
• Blue Velvet by David Lynch (1986). Blue Velvet (David Lynch) — culture for Inez and Vinoodh (themoviedb.org)
• Le Chaman et ses créatures by Pierre Molinier (1995). Le Chaman et ses créatures (Pierre Molinier) — ghost for Inez and Vinoodh
• Exhibit A by Guy Bourdin (1955). Exhibit A (Guy Bourdin) — titan for Inez and Vinoodh
• White Women by Helmut Newton (1976). White Women (Helmut Newton) — titan for Inez and Vinoodh
• Die Puppe (The Doll) by Hans Bellmer (1934). Die Puppe (The Doll) (Hans Bellmer) — ghost for Inez and Vinoodh
• Passage: A Work Record by Irving Penn (1991). Passage: A Work Record (Irving Penn) — titan for Inez and Vinoodh

Peers and kindred spirits

• Björk (1965). The duo worked regularly with Björk on videos and editorials. (also via Vespertine) “Since 1999, they have worked regularly with Icelandic polymath Björk on several music videos and high profile magazine editorials.” (Wikipedia)
• An Artpop Film by Lady Gaga. The duo shot Lady Gaga's An Artpop Film. “They were featured in her ArtRave and shot An Artpop Film .” (Wikipedia)
• Mene. The duo released a jewelry collaboration with Mene. “In February 2019, they released a jewelry collaboration with Mene, a brand co-founded by Pablo Picasso's granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso .” (Wikipedia)
• FourFiveSeconds. The duo directed the video for Rihanna's “FourFiveSeconds.” “In 2015, they shot the single cover for " Only One ", a collaboration between Kanye West and Paul McCartney , along with directing the video for " FourFiveSeconds ", a song by Rihanna , featuring West and McCartney.” (Wikipedia)
• Only One. The duo photographed the cover of the single “Only One.” “In 2015, they shot the single cover for " Only One ", a collaboration between Kanye West and Paul McCartney , along with directing the video for " FourFiveSeconds ", a song by Rihanna , featuring West and McCartney.” (Wikipedia)
• Taylor Swift (1989). The duo photographed Taylor Swift for Time. “In 2023, they shot Taylor Swift for Time magazine’s Person of the Year covers.” (Wikipedia)
• Miu Miu. The duo shot a campaign for Miu Miu. “The duo have shot campaigns for Chanel , Calvin Klein , Louis Vuitton [ 5 ] and Miu Miu , as well as Louis Vuitton under creative director Virgil Abloh .” (Wikipedia)
• Kate Moss. The duo filmed Kate Moss dancing. “The duo has shot supermodel Kate Moss while dancing to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean on film; [ 13 ] they also directed Lady Gaga 's 2013 music video for " Applause ".” (Wikipedia)
• Ten Thousand Things. The duo released a jewelry line with Ten Thousand Things. “They also released a line of jewelry [ 10 ] with New York brand Ten Thousand Things.” (Wikipedia)
• Louis Vuitton. The duo shot campaigns for Louis Vuitton. “The duo have shot campaigns for Chanel , Calvin Klein , Louis Vuitton [ 5 ] and Miu Miu , as well as Louis Vuitton under creative director Virgil Abloh .” (Wikipedia)
• Applause by Lady Gaga. The duo directed the music video for Lady Gaga's “Applause.” “The duo has shot supermodel Kate Moss while dancing to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean on film; [ 13 ] they also directed Lady Gaga 's 2013 music video for " Applause ".” (Wikipedia)
• Calvin Klein. The duo shot a campaign for Calvin Klein. “The duo have shot campaigns for Chanel , Calvin Klein , Louis Vuitton [ 5 ] and Miu Miu , as well as Louis Vuitton under creative director Virgil Abloh .” (Wikipedia)
• Vespertine by Björk (2001). Vespertine (Björk) — collaborator for Inez and Vinoodh “=== Collaborations === Since 1999, they have worked regularly with Icelandic polymath Björk on several music videos and high profile magazine editorials.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Virgil Abloh (1980). The duo shot a Louis Vuitton campaign under creative director Virgil Abloh. “The duo have shot campaigns for Chanel , Calvin Klein , Louis Vuitton [ 5 ] and Miu Miu , as well as Louis Vuitton under creative director Virgil Abloh .” (Wikipedia)
• Chanel. The duo shot a campaign for Chanel. “The duo have shot campaigns for Chanel , Calvin Klein , Louis Vuitton [ 5 ] and Miu Miu , as well as Louis Vuitton under creative director Virgil Abloh .” (Wikipedia)
• M to M of M/M (Paris) by M/M (Paris) (2004). M to M of M/M (Paris) (M/M (Paris)) — collaborator for Inez and Vinoodh “Designed in collaboration with M/M (Paris), it was published by Taschen in two volumes, each containing 333 pages and a pocket book-sized reader featuring essays and fiction by Michael Bracewell, Antony Hegarty, Penny Martin, Glenn O'Bri…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Russian Doll by Viktor & Rolf (1999). Russian Doll (Viktor & Rolf) — collaborator for Inez and Vinoodh
• Burg by Wolfgang Tillmans (1998). Burg (Wolfgang Tillmans) — peer for Inez and Vinoodh
• Royal Blood by Erwin Olaf (2000). Royal Blood (Erwin Olaf) — geography for Inez and Vinoodh
• Go-Sees by Juergen Teller (1999). Go-Sees (Juergen Teller) — peer for Inez and Vinoodh
• Beach Portraits by Rineke Dijkstra (1992). Beach Portraits (Rineke Dijkstra) — geography for Inez and Vinoodh
• Famouz by Anton Corbijn (1989). Famouz (Anton Corbijn) — geography for Inez and Vinoodh
• The Third Floor by Mario Sorrenti (2016). The Third Floor (Mario Sorrenti) — peer for Inez and Vinoodh

Who Inez and Vinoodh influenced

• Young New York by Ethan James Green (2019). Young New York (Ethan James Green) — legacy for Inez and Vinoodh
• Homes by Harley Weir (2017). Homes (Harley Weir) — legacy for Inez and Vinoodh