Photographers Mert and Marcus Talk 20 Years in Fashion, ‘Selling Dreams’ and Collaborating With Taylor Swift

Since meeting at a party in the early ’90s, photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott (or Mert & Marcus as they’re better known to most of the world) have been a joint creative force to reckon with. In the two decades since the pair started collaborating from a DIY East London loft-turned-studio, they’ve brought an element of highly-stylized glamour to the fashion world. The pair are known for their polished, hyper-saturated images and unapologetic use of digital manipulation, creating fantasies in picture form in projects that run the gamut from Kate Moss’ high-fashion, 60th anniversary Playboy cover to the edgy album art for Taylor Swift’s highly-anticipated upcoming album, Reputation. Now, with 20 years in the industry to their credit, Mert and Marcus are looking back at their work with their first retrospective book, a limited-edition, 400-page glossy tome from Taschen titled simply, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. We spoke to the photographers about their two decades in fashion, Instagram, and what Taylor Swift’s new album sounds like. See some of their most iconic images from the book above. When did you two first start creating images? Mert Alas: Twenty years ago. In 1994, we met and started sort of making pictures and then from 1995, we were doing photos of ourselves and our friends at home, nothing to do with fashion, just a lot of portraits and nudes, and then in 1997, we started doing this. Marcus Piggott: We’d call up ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized fashion Marcus Piggott Mert Alas Mert and Marcus Newsfeed photography Taylor Swift Source Type: news