Dreamy Photography by Dutch Duo Freudenthal/Verhagen

Blue Jeans.

Majid.

Agnes.

Mould.

Rianne.

Amsterdam–based photography duo Freudenthal/Verhagen have spent over two decades perfecting their singular, jaw-dropping approach to photography that literally makes me go weak at the knees. In a good way, of course.

I first became aware of the Dutch fashion & fine art photography duo after seeing the incredible profile photos they captured for high profile designers, like Scholten & Baijings and Viktor & Rolf. My admiration for their work was cemented after I re-discovered them earlier this year in Milan, where they exhibited as part of the Dutch Pavilion during Milan Design Week 2017.

Carmen Freudenthal & Elle Verhagen (1965 & 1962) met right after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy were Carmen studied photography and Elle studied fashion design. There was an immediate recognition of a mutual taste in image making and what fashion imagery should look like, which formed the basis of their fruitful practice.

Carmen & Elle’s ongoing collaboration began in 1989, in the very first issue of I-D magazine. Since then, the duo relentlessly continue to search for ways to expand the definition of fashion photography, crossing lines between fashion and art, in their pursuit for cultural relevancy.

WHOLE book.

Their images have, over the years, become diverse in discipline and form. But what they continue to have in common is a sense of disturbance and multilayered storytelling. Stretching the confines of photography, Freudenthal/Verhagen have merged photographs into 3D installations, projected video onto photographs and printed photographs onto draped silk and other materials. More recently they started pouring epoxy over their black-and-white photos, creating oversized photographic murals.

Now a selection of their works has been brought together in the book titled WHOLE, designed to take us on a journey into their surreal, colourful and ground-breaking universe. More info on how to buy the book can be found here. And while you’re at it, pick us up a copy, k? Great, thanks.