The Idea of Reality: Views on Fashion Photography

Join the Hall of Femmes at Aperture for a special evening highlighting women in fashion photography and magazine culture, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Different Distances: Fashion Photography Goes Art. Moderator Johanna Lenander will lead a conversation with Swedish photographers Denise Grünstein and Sophie Mörner, followed by a reception.

Johanna Lenander is a Swedish-born, New York-based writer and editor who currently serves as senior content director at Fab.com. As a reporter, she has written about fashion, art, and design for publications such as W, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Surface, and Nylon. She has also consulted with global luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Ralph Lauren. She coauthored the book Hair Wars (powerHouse Books, 2007) with photographer David Yellen, and cocurated the international design and crafts exhibition Happy Campers.

Denise Grünstein (born in Helsinki, 1950) lives and works in Stockholm. She is one of Sweden’s most renowned photographers, with a career spanning over thirty years, and has successfully moved between artistic projects and commercial assignments. During the 1980s, Grünstein made a name for herself as one of Sweden’s top portrait photographers, depicting the cultural elite for the era’s most prestigious magazines while always adding a new level of understanding to her portrait subjects. Grünstein’s photos are included in the Different Distances exhibition.

Sophie Mörner (born in Stockholm, 1976) has been a central figure in what has come to be a new photography movement in and around Brooklyn. As the founder and owner of the widely respected Capricious Magazine, the publishing house by the same name, and the newly established Capricious 88 Gallery, she has provided exposure for young, up-and-coming photographers, as well the often marginalized work of the queer community. Mörner has since been part of numerous group exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, and the Netherlands. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications, including i-D, Stern, BLEND, ANP Quarterly, Celeste, Livraison, Dossier, Vice, and Girls Like Us. She is also on the board of the Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm.

About Hall of Femmes
Hall of Femmes aims to highlight the work of women in art direction and design. The project was founded in 2009 by Samira Bouabana and Angela Tillman Sperandio. It includes lectures, exhibitions, interviews, podcasts and the publication of the Hall of Femmes book series, each book portraying a designer and her work through in-depth interviews and previously unpublished images.

Image: Denise Grünstein, Flatbed