FASHION IS ART. FASHION IS VISUAL. FASHION IS PHOTOGRAPHED.
October 10, 2024
Adelaide Ng
Interweaving haute-couture with surrealist art, Nadia Lee Cohen is a photographer & filmmaker known for her camp cinematography. Her visuals exude originality — illustrating a dreamscape world of dystopian glamour, humour and poised candour. Straying away from the standard imagery of plastic perfection that has permeated fashion editorials for decades, it is precisely this unconventional dexterity that offers her photographs their magnetic drawl.
Largely inspired by cinema, Americana and Britain ‘60s-‘70s culture, Nadia operates within the realm of twisted, fantastical storytelling. In an interview with It’s Nice That, Nadia says “the world I photograph and create doesn’t reside in the same world that we live in. It does not share or possess the same beauty norms, politics or social values”. As such, the world she envisions for her characters is vibrantly enigmatic and politically liberating. Despite her British roots, Nadia is now based in Los Angeles and draws much of her inspiration from eerie American suburbia and Hollywood glamour alike, entwining themes of mundane simplicity and elusive hyperreality. Picture big permed wigs, bold makeup, (occasional) feminine nudity, apathetic expression and curated throwback clothing (though absent at times); plain, simple old American beauty… saturated and disillusioned.
Among Nadia’s formidable body of work lies her carousel of self-portraits, exhibited in her book “HELLO. My name is”. With an innate curiosity that propels her creativity, Nadia imagined 33 distinctive personalities based on thrifted name tags and, in true cool-girl fashion, gave herself complete makeovers with meticulously detailed prosthetics, character-appropriate makeup, outfits fitted to a T — even her posture is in character. Utterly unrecognisable as “Ear-Piercing Specialist Diane”, chain-smoking “JEFF”, washed-up babe at the Pizza-Hut “TEENA”, punk-with-piercings “Nic” and more, Nadia proves herself to be a woman with a propensity for shape-shifting and a visionary fashionista-artist in her own right. Displayed beside each portrait is a “still-life” shot of selective objects splayed out that reflect the character’s persona: cigarette joints, a corded telephone, a sculpted pigeon, half-eaten sesame crackers… Flipping through the photobook, viewers are transported to Nadia’s witty, and slightly queer psyche but always encouraged to curate their own interpretations of her characters, or rather caricatures. Nearing the end of the book, Nadia inserts spreads of behind-the-scenes Polaroids, divulging the processes behind the theatrics. “I like to see this sort of thing when looking at other artists' work as it gives me a connection to the project,” Nadia tells i-D. “I genuinely enjoy embodying characters like this. There was a balance of wanting to be present in the photographs but absent enough to be physically unrecognisable.”
Beyond the glitz and glamour, Nadia frequently explores the polarities of femininity and what constitutes womanhood, defining beauty as “a large brain full of wit and intelligence”. In reflection of such, much of the humour of Nadia’s photographs is grounded in its uncanniness, as she devises a recurring pattern of glamour existing in ironic, unlikely settings. Every image she constructs is unanticipated and unrealistic. Evidently, for Nadia, it is within the peculiar details where oddity thrives.
As a follower of cult films like “the Shining” and artists such as Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, and Alfred Hitchcock, Nadia, clearly, reveres her muses as much as we do her. Particularly, Hitchcock’s infamous use of mise-en-scène is what inspired her choice to incorporate theatrics in photography. In doing so, she has devised a way of storytelling through art that is so intriguing to the extent where dozens of fashion-giants have begun to offer up complete creative rein over editorial choices. Among her latest projects is a photoshoot campaign for Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS (say what you want about the Kardashians, but they certainly know how to advance their branding).
In speaking of her photographs and stills, Nadia expresses “the idea was to be able to look at
them, hear them speak.” With that note, I encourage you to scroll through her spread of editorials and traverse into the beautifully curated world she realises in her photographs.