The Dutch photography duo Inez & Vinoodh have launched a major retrospective titled "Can Love Be a Photograph" at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. Spanning their career since 1986, the exhibition features 150 works that blur the lines between fashion photography, celebrity portraiture, and fine art. To mark the opening, the artists highlighted six defining works—including the digitally manipulated "Thank You Thighmaster" series—that prioritize conceptual depth and psychological mutation over the glossy celebrity culture they are often associated with.
This exhibition matters because it cements Inez & Vinoodh’s legacy as pioneers of digital manipulation and challengers of the "candid" aesthetic in fashion. By selecting fine art pieces over their famous portraits of stars like Taylor Swift or Björk, the duo emphasizes their roots in the MoMA PS1 residency and their career-long critique of physical perfection and media-driven reality. The show highlights how their collaborative "collective" approach has influenced the visual language of both high fashion and contemporary art for nearly four decades.