In this rare artistic collaboration, the photographer Miles Aldridge invited contemporary painter Chantal Joffe to explore the theme of ‘the artist and model’. The resulting works in colour and black and white photographs, ink and pencil drawings and paintings in watercolour and oils create a fascinatingly obsessive and emotional study of one woman: the model Kristen McMenamy.
Aldridge and Joffe worked in tandem in Joffe's East London studio, taking turns to lead and follow. While Joffe favoured softer, more traditional life-model positions, Aldridge encouraged Kristen to adopt a more erotic stance, characteristic of the photographic style for which he is famous.
Joffe's expressive drawings as well as works in oils and watercolours, which frequently drip, smudge and blur, capture Kristen at ease, in the contemplative mode of a life-model relaxing into a long pose; the accompanying black and white images taken by Aldridge during those sessions pay homage to that naturalism.
Aldridge's colour images of Kristen are highly charged - the artist's model turned femme fatale. Acid yellow and lurid violet replace the softer sorbet tones of Joffe's palette. The spiky immediate graphic works drawn by Joffe record that intensity of mood.
The accompanying edition includes 6 chromogenic prints by Aldridge and 5 lithographs by Joffe, all signed and numbered housed in a natural linen slipcase which was produced in close collaboration with both artists on the occasion of their joint exhibition Kristen - As seen by Miles Aldridge and Chantal Joffe. The edition will also include the book in which all images from the exhibition are pictured with an interview with both artists by Magdalene Keany, associate director of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London.