Marta Ortega Perez Shines a Light on Steven Meisel With New Show
LONDON — Marta Ortega Perez, the new chair of Inditex, is training the spotlight on another fashion photography giant: Steven Meisel.
“Steven Meisel 1993 A Year in Photographs” will open in A Coruña, in Galicia, Spain, in November.
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The exhibition is being organized with the personal support of Ortega Perez, and is part of a long-term initiative to bring “world-class culture to A Coruña,” and to promote “Galicia’s rich cultural spirit to the world.”
It comes almost a year after Ortega Perez staged “Untold Stories,” a show of Peter Lindbergh’s work, in Inditex’s home city. That show ran from Dec. 4, 2021, through March 31 and attracted an audience of more than 110,000.
Meisel will present images made during “a phenomenal 12-month burst of creativity” in A Coruña on Nov. 19, according to organizers.
It will explore his work throughout 1993, which proved to be a pivotal moment in Meisel’s career.
He shot 28 covers for Vogue together with more than 100 editorial stories, including “Anglo-Saxon Attitudes” with Stella Tennant, Bella Freud, Plum Sykes and Honor Fraser, for British Vogue.
The exhibition will showcase more than 100 portraits from the worlds of fashion and film, including Linda Evangelista, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Jaye Davidson, Barbra Streisand, Marlon Richards, Isabella Blow, Amanda Harlech and Twiggy.
Meisel is one of the most prolific fashion photographers of his generation, and spent a career working with Vogue and Vogue Italia in particular.
He photographed Madonna for her 1992 book, “Sex,” and shot campaigns for brands including Prada, Versace, Valentino, Calvin Klein and Zara. He also helped to jump-start the careers of models including Evangelista, Campbell, Tennant, Amber Valletta, Kristen McMenamy and Christy Turlington.
Ortega Perez said Meisel’s “prodigious talent and tireless creativity have made him one of the greatest, and most intriguing, photographers of his generation. Like the images of the great photographers who have preceded him, Steven’s photographs reach beyond the surface to capture the true personality of his subject, always transcending their context. They are, without doubt, some of the most important and interesting fashion photographs ever made.”
She added that the show will “not only be an important addition to the rich tapestry of cultural life in Galicia, but also a rich source of inspiration for everyone fortunate enough to be able to spend time with Steven’s remarkable images.”
Following three preview days, the show will be open to the public, free of charge, from Nov. 19 through May 1, 2023.
As reported, “Untold Stories” was designed by Lindbergh himself before he died. The show occupied a converted industrial building in the A Coruña harbor area, an architectural space created by Elsa Urquijo. It featured more than 150 photographs ranging from the early 1980s to 2019.
Both the show and the space were part of a wider initiative to promote A Coruña, a bustling port city that’s also home to Estrella Galicia beer, as a cultural hub.
The Lindbergh exhibition was one of many creative projects that Ortega Perez has spearheaded over the years at Inditex.
She staged the Lindbergh show because she was determined to see the photographer’s spirit live on, and to share his legacy in her native Galicia. The show was accompanied by a special edition of the Taschen book “Untold Stories.”
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