Fashion has long borrowed from classical surrealism, but often sanitized it into passive beauty. Man Ray and Salvador Dalí turned female bodies into violins and melting forms. Capozzi flips that legacy upside down. In her work, the absurdity is driven by the woman behind the lens and the women before it.
Sevigny is never an ornamental object in these portraits. She is a collaborator playing an active role in the farce. When she strikes a bizarre pose with an everyday kitchen appliance or stretches across a vinyl floor, the camera does not leer. It documents. The gaze here is distinctly feminine, messy, and humorous. Humor in high fashion remains rare because luxury takes itself desperately seriously. By inviting laughter and bewilderment into an editorial for a global publication, Capozzi and Sevigny rescued fashion photography from its self-important pedestal.
