‘s collaborative art initiative curated by its creative director, Anthony Vaccarello. For the seventh iteration of the series, debuting around the world this week, Vaccarello has tapped six different photographers, none of whom work within the traditional fashion realm, and asked them to put his summer 2022 collection within the context of their individual artistic vision.
From June 9 through 12, each artist will have their own temporary outdoor exhibition in one of six cities—New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai, respectively—where they will show a mélange of their new commissions with a selection from their vintage oeuvre. The result is decidedly not an ad campaign, but it definitely blurs the boundaries between fine art and fashion.
Basically, what I decided to do was to create a kind of visual conversation between some of my Latin American and the Caribbean photographs and these new Saint Laurent pictures. These pictures are certainly styled—they’re wearing Saint Laurent clothes—but I tried to channel some of the spirit of what I’ve done for many years in Latin America, sort of dealing with similar kinds of moments, similar kind of light.
I’m very much an environmental photographer. I’m intrigued by how people exist in their environment. I went out and looked for locations that seem to be evocative in which I could bring the models to and try and do something. Often that had to do with a sense of color. A couple of times there’s a brilliant yellow wall. Other times, there’s a place where you see people in deep space, that’s kind of interesting.