Beneath Its Pop Print Colours and Beautiful Women, Artist And

as a photographer. Further infl uences included his design wizard father Alan Aldridge, a Central Saint Martins homoerotic directive (more on this later) and a childlike veneration for the provocative storytellers of fi lm and photography – Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Frederico Fellini, Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. Miles’ bright, erotically charged photography aligns itself more with fi lm than photography’s traditional role of documentation. His distinctly cinematic style seeks to ‘suspend disbelief and transport you to a world where things are more interesting, more exciting, more beautiful’. In 2009 his work was showcased in Weird Beauty at the International Center for Photography in New York and in 2013 I Only Want You To Love Me at Somerset House was the largest exhibition of Miles’ work to date. His works are also in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in the UK. From lip-stained cigarettes aggressively sizzled into bright orange egg yolks to sexually charged, yet somewhat dazed beauties, sprawled among smashed plates, Miles has created a psychedelic, pop print world, bound into single shots. An avid disciple of Hitchcock, he is infatuated by the dual dynamic of attraction and repulsion. This ease with beauty and colour can be traced back to the bright orange pop-art rooms of Miles’ 1960s childhood home in London. His father literally traded in the stuff as a noted psychedelic designer and close family friends included Eric Clapton and John Lennon. Striking beauty was the norm. Miles’ sister, Saffron, was a model in Paris, later becoming the face of Ralph Lauren, while half-sisters Lily and Ruby have walked runways and graced billboards the world over. But Miles is quick to dismiss that such connections guaranteed him a seat at the table. Alan Aldridge’s shoes were tough ones to fi ll. While fi rst pursuing a career in illustration in the 1980s, Miles BEYOND THE found his work routinely eclipsed by his father’s reputation. ‘I wanted BEAUTIFUL ABOVE: Home Works #3, Vogue Beneath its pop print colours Italia (2008) TOP: Immaculée #3, LEFT: Miles Numéro (2007) and beautiful women, artist and Aldridge, Self Portrait (2011) ABOVE: Miles’ photographer Miles Aldridge’s Central Saint Martins sketchbook (1986) work goes more than skin deep, LEFT: I Only Want You To Love Me #1, Vogue says ROSALYN WIKELEY Italia (2011) iles Aldridge has been invited to New York by Time magazine to shoot the cover for their ‘100 most infl uential people’ issue. I catch the British fashion photographer and artist while he’s taking a breather from the Big Apple’s M‘machine’, Skyping me from his hotel room. Miles, 53, is no stranger to the city. He played a pivotal role in the Nineties fashion scene, when ‘magazines ruled the world and you could work every hour of every day’, photographing fashion story after fashion story, svelte models with wide smiles. It was amid this noisy backdrop of clichéd beauty that Miles forged an artistic philosophy that would become his trademark 92 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2017 June 2017 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 93 Miles was soon churning out front Psycho (1960). As Janet Leigh is murdered in a fl ash of blades, covers for American Vogue, the New a male audience is simultaneously repulsed and pulled in by her naked body. Similarly, Miles relishes the thought that the York Times and The New Yorker, but owners of his paintings claim they make them smile, ‘I like he tired of the ‘inane grinning and that because even though there’s darkness to the work, it’s lubricated by humour.’ pictures of pretty girls’ With New York and its factory fashion-photography behind him, Miles took refuge in Highgate. He escapes every morning to show them my drawings and photographs but all these art directors with a swim on Hampstead Heath. ‘It gives me a moment to had such huge respect for my father that it was actually quite diffi cult.’ be alone, swimming through the icy water’. Perhaps London It wasn’t until Miles left Central Saint Martins that he started to fl ex best refl ects Miles’ photography: vast and colourful, awash his directing muscle. He moved out from his father’s shadow, still with theatre, ‘old fashioned but regenerating’. It is the only city holding onto those early lessons in illustration and colour, which where he feels at peace and ‘can just get things done’. equipped him for his later career in ‘photo-fi ction’. He has just fi nished a project with Italian artist The homoerotic art of Miles’ Central Saint Martins illustration Maurizio Cattelan, best-known for his satirical sculptures, course was a major infl uence on him. ‘All my tutors were gay, and especially La Nona Ora. The new piece will be unveiled at Photo this had the effect of bringing my attention to a lot of gay artists, London this month. They share a fascination with the appeal- like Hockney. I’m not gay, but these drawings and paintings did repulse tug and decided to collaborate, cooking up an idea infl uence me.’ As did the homoerotic photographs in Bruce Weber’s of a fashion scene with no fashion – think nude models O Rio de Janeiro book and Richard Avedon’s powerful portraiture interacting with Maurizio’s famous Hitler or his Pope. series In the American West. The much-anticipated collaboration is symbolic for Miles never chased photography, it ambushed him during a stint Miles. It marks a departure from editorial magazines. in the early ’90s making pop videos. He recalls shooting a video for For him, the internet’s irony lies in its democratic promise; The Verve, cross dressing lead singer Richard Ashcroft and his own it has in fact tightened control over what content ‘works’ girlfriend in his Bethnal Green council fl at. ‘Richard had a bath in my for magazines and what doesn’t, enslaved by instant fl at then we started shooting... this wouldn’t happen nowadays.’ Miles gratifi cation, rarely wrestling the status helped this same girlfriend, an aspiring model, to shoot her portfolio quo in fear of risking ‘likes’. This on Hampstead Heath. A Vogue casting later and the model wasn’t colourful photographer is embarking hired but Miles was, and with it, pulled headfi rst into a tsnami of ’90s on a new direction, throwing his energy commercialism, suddenly fi nding himself in New York with an agent. into galleries and artists, where the ‘I bluffed my way through it... God, it happened so fast.’ freedom and appetite for provocative He found his forte photographing women and models: ‘I connected images persists. with them like a director.’ Miles was soon churning out front covers for For Miles Aldridge’s prints, visit Lyndsey Ingram’s Gallery, 28 Mount Street W1, 020 7581 8664; lyndseyingram.com. Her new gallery will open this ■ FROM LEFT: M.A.C Cosmetics (2010); summer at 20 Bourdon Street, W1. American Vogue, Numéro, the New Five Girls in a Car #3, Vogue Italia (2013); A Dazzling Beauty #3,Vogue York Times and The New Yorker. But Italia (2008); Ecstasy – Study II, Unique he tired of the ‘inane grinning Polaroid(2002); Semi Detached #2, Sunday Times (2012) and pictures of pretty girls’. Moreover he lamented his lack of vision, shown by his heroes – David Lynch, Egon Schiele, Benjamin Britten – As an ongoing enquiry, Miles took his ‘So,’ he asked himself, ‘why the hell make these camera to beauty as a concept, studying it to stupid dumb pictures?’ reveal the pain that lies beneath. He saw his Miles picked up his pen, dusted off his BOOK, PUBLISHED 2016 (STEIDL) photography as a way to subtly and perversely illustrator storyboard and paired it with his expose these cracks. ‘It seemed that the most experience of directing music videos. ‘It’s not beautiful people I knew were some of the about the girl, it’s the fact she’s in a story and unhappiest.’ Splashes of loud colour were used we – the audience – root for her to win... I’d to lure in an audience that was averse to these create scenarios and drawings and take them to ‘truths’, unwittingly trespassing into private studios.’ Encouragement came thick and fast from PLEASE RETURN POLAROID territory. Miles convinces me this is the real photographers such as David LaChapelle. Italian point of art, where created images are diffi cult Vogue’s Franca Sozzani saw Miles’ potential to to read, yet ‘potent in their ability to make you assist her mission of ‘visual stories’, conquering the question things’. His preference for nuance magazine’s Italian language barrier to increase is surprising, given the pop-art lustre of his its global appeal. There would be less work as his images. This closely emulates a Hitchcockian offering became more limited, but his creative knack for exposing weakness, lifting truths energy had been stirred. Miles now had a message and base desires hidden behind a screen of worth communicating. PHOTOS: ECSTASY– STUDY II FROM morality. Miles cites the shower scene from 94 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2017 June 2017 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 95 .

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