Can Love Be a Photograph?: Inez & Vinoodh Explore What Love Looks Like Now

Vingt Sept
1 day ago
7 min read

Inside Inez & Vinoodh’s “THINK LOVE” at India Mahdavi’s Project Room #21

Inside Paris’ softly lit India Mahdavi Project Room #21, a crimson veil catches the light, suspended between sculpture and emotion. It forms the heart of THINK LOVE, the latest work by Inez & Vinoodh, a visual meditation on intimacy, technology, and time.

Presented as a preview to their forthcoming retrospective, Can Love Be a Photograph? opening at Kunstmuseum Den Haag in March 2026, this intimate exhibition marks a new chapter for the duo, who continue to redefine the language of image-making after four decades of collaboration.

Curated by Kathy Ryan, the former director of photography at The New York Times Magazine, the installation captures everything that defines Inez & Vinoodh’s practice: the tension between digital and human, art and fashion, reality and illusion. Created using the new iPhone 17 Pro Max as part of Apple’s Joy, in 3 Parts series, THINK LOVE reflects on photography’s evolving intimacy in a world shaped by immediacy.

At its centre is a triptych: two lovers, artists Charles Matadin and Natalie Brumley, locked in an embrace beneath a translucent red veil. Charles, the couple’s son, appears with his partner Natalie, their connection rendered timeless and tender. The image, captured in Marfa, Texas, feels both eternal and ephemeral, exploring the duality that has long defined Inez & Vinoodh’s work: ecstasy and introspection, connection and solitude, flesh and spirit.

Ahead of the retrospective, the pair sat down in Paris to discuss love, process, and the intersection of art and technology. Their reflections move between philosophy and practice, a dialogue on creativity in the age of AI, the intimacy of collaboration, and the beauty of imperfection that still defines the human image.

We’re living in a moment where a new generation is deeply enamoured with AI. While it's undeniably a powerful tool, do you worry that it risks diminishing the craft of photography? How do we bring the human technicality and the technical skill back into the image-making process?

Inez: AI is a fantastic tool, in fact, an ideal one. But it’s still just that: a tool. People say you can type a prompt and instantly get an image, but what about the process? For us, the process is everything. It’s the exchange with another human, the connection, the energy, the moment that passes between artist and subject. It’s working with hair, makeup, lighting, the location, and the team. It’s a full day spent together, filled with shared memories and experiences. Yes, the final photograph matters, but it’s not the most meaningful part.

The focus on AI as simply an end result strips away the depth of human collaboration. Technology has incredible benefits for things like healthcare, environmental research and even quick visual brainstorming or moodboards. But we love our life. We love taking pictures. We don’t really know who we are if we’re not doing that. So no, I don’t believe AI could ever replace us.

Vinoodh: Exactly. We’ve always said, if AI could one day allow us to have a genuine, profound conversation with a tree, that would be extraordinary.

Both: That would be the dream.

As both an editor and a stylist, I value being on set with an entire creative team, where hair and makeup can experiment, photographers can collaborate, assistants can contribute ideas, and everyone feeds off each other’s energy. But we are now seeing a shift where certain brands, which I won’t name, are using AI-generated models, and there is currently no legislation in place. In your view, what is the solution?

Inez: For me personally, I think if there are ways to make regulations happen, this is where I feel a bit disappointed in these brands. They seem so focused on their bottom line that they’re willing to sweep aside everything that made them great to begin with, the actual models, the creative designers, the graphic designers, the stylists, the crews we work with, and, as you said previously, the studio rentals, the people, everybody.

Vinoodh: Just to save a few dollars. For money reasons.

Inez: To make it a little bit cheaper. And I feel it’s almost disrespectful to however many years these brands have existed. Also, we’re part of an industry — this is our business — and the industry thrives on mistakes, on accidents that push you forward and give you new ideas you never would’ve thought of. Sometimes something goes wrong with the light, and the shot ends up better without it. That kind of unpredictability is part of our medium and part of fashion. Replacing that negates all of it. I really hope there are ways to regulate this, and for everything that’s already happened, I truly hope models have a way to negotiate their own rights.

In this new series, where your son and his partner appear at the centre of the imagery, you seem to explore both masculinity and femininity fluidly within them. Does your son ever feel nervous stepping into such an artistically vulnerable role, or is this a space that feels natural to him?

Vinoodh: No. He grew up in our environment, so from day one, he was always involved. We are always asking him, so he’s part of it.

Inez: He’s always been there on set with us. For the first 14 years of his life, he travelled with us, so he was always on shoots at night, meeting the crew when we were on location. So he’s very aware of the process and how it all works. I think he also loves experiencing it from the point of view of being a model for us. He sees it from another side, and I think he likes being the vessel, you know? He loves it.

Vinoodh: They’re both artists themselves, so they love the process.

Inez: Yes. And also for them to see us think about things, to doubt things, you know, it’s really healthy.

Do you feel like your son (Charles) is your muse at the moment?

Inez: Definitely. Both of them are.

Vinoodh: Both. They’re really like being our sounding board also.

Inez: Yes, and vice versa. We talk about art with them all the time. And the kiss is such an emblem for us. It’s something that has been recurring in our self-portraiture over the 40 years we’ve been working together. So it felt natural for this project to have them embody us, in a way, in this kiss.

I’m a huge admirer of Klimt, especially The Kiss, which captures intimacy in a way that has become iconic across art history. When you think about these historic representations of love, and the way intimacy is expressed today through younger generations like Charles and Natalie, how do these ideas intersect for you?

Inez: It’s incredible.

Vinoodh: I think with this, it’s also great to celebrate the next generation.

Inez: They are the future, and their idea of preserving nature. Their outward look. And that positivity works; it’s the idea of returning to paradise.

You chose Marfa, Texas, for the outdoor shots. What drew you to that location, and how did the environment influence the tone or intimacy of the imagery?

Inez: We looked at a super vast landscape that would really emphasise their intimacies, and also because we had to shoot it on the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Vinoodh: We also had to be very private.

Inez: Yes, so we said, “Where can we go?”

Vinoodh: And a friend who owns a barn invited us to shoot on her property.

Using red as a primary visual language is a striking choice. Traditionally, people associate young love with softer tones like pink or white, but red feels deeper: visceral, erotic, ancestral. Why did red become the emotional register of this series and of The Kiss in particular?

Vinoodh: Well, red is the colour of the bloodline. It’s the colour of love. It’s also the colour of danger.

Inez: Red has always been present in our work. It’s so interesting. If it’s black or white, there’s always red. It’s always been that thing, specifically the first…

Vinoodh: Specifically, the first kiss picture…

This reference to “the first kiss picture” nods directly to their seminal work Me Kissing Vinoodh (Passionately), 1999, and situates red not as an aesthetic flourish, but as a consistent emotional code present in their visual language for more than two decades.

Looking at the technical side, you shot this on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. Some would assume there are limitations with a device like that. Did it impose constraints, or did it actually allow for a different kind of creative freedom?

Inez: Nooo.

Vinoodh: No, you just have to see it as another great camera.

Inez: For a camera, it’s amazing.

Do you feel that you can still fully express the fine-art dimension of your work through the iPhone, or does the medium itself inevitably shape how the art comes through?

Vinoodh: Yes.

Inez: Yes. Specifically because it’s effective but not intimidating. It’s extremely agile, obviously, and for us to get this kind of intimacy, it really helps. And it’s actually the best camera.

Vinoodh: And even in this picture (points to the image of Charles and Natalie running with the red veil at sunset), everything about it is the most difficult thing you can do with a camera – the backlight, the red colour…

Inez: We honestly didn’t think about how technically difficult it would be. We just went for it. And then when we shot it and looked at the images… normally you can’t get that level of detail, or that kind of backlit clarity. We said to each other, Oh my god – naively, we chose a red veil, the focus has to pass through, running subjects, backlighting, long focal distances… I mean, it’s amazing what the iPhone has captured.

You have been creating together for almost forty years, in both life and art. You share not only a professional practice but a marriage, a family, and an entire creative ecosystem. Has there ever been a moment where that dual partnership brought challenges, or has the collaboration always felt seamless?

Both: No.

Is that because you feel as though you are essentially one, rather than two separate individuals?

Both: Yes.

Inez: We think the same. We often say the same thing. I’ll see something, and he’ll say, “Oh my god, I was just thinking that.”

Vinoodh: We’re also extremely flexible.

Inez: Yes.

What advice would you offer to couples who want to explore their creativity together?

Inez: I think one person has to be flexible - not always the same person, but one of the two has to be flexible.

And when flexibility is needed, who tends to bend? Who is the one who softens when the other stands firm?

Inez: We both are, but at different times.

THINK LOVE is on view from November 13 to December 12, 2025, at Project Room #21, located at 29 Rue de Bellechasse, 75007 Paris.

The exhibition Can Love Be a Photograph? 40 years of Inez & Vinoodh will open at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag on March 20, 2026

For more information, visit HERE

Words by Jheanelle Feanny