A retrospective in the Netherlands will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the photography duo Inez & Vinoodh

Inez & Vinoodh, the artistic duo formed by Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, will celebrate 40 years of practice in 2026, with fashion as one of their main areas of creative exploration. The Kunstmuseum Den Haag (The Hague, Netherlands) pays tribute to his career with an exhibition entitled “Can Love Be a Photograph”, which can be visited from March 21 to September 6.

The exhibition spans 18 rooms and, through its curatorial journey, reflects the shared life and creative alliance of Inez and Vinoodh since 1986. The duo pioneered the use of digital techniques and technological image manipulation; Through their work, the couple has expanded the boundaries of photography as an audiovisual medium.

“Can Love Be a Photograph” showcases 40 years of Inez & Vinoodh's work in art, fashion and portrait photography. Rather than a chronological arrangement, it is organized thematically. “By eliminating a linear timeline, the images can establish new relationships with each other, underlining the distinction between time and history. Seeing each image as a form of self-portrait, Inez and Vinoodh present the exhibition as a testimony of love, understood as the act of truly seeing, valuing and caring for the other,” explains the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in a statement.

Contribution to fashion photography.

The exhibition features key works that illuminate the creative couple's practice, including the series “Thank You Thighmaster,” “Final Fantasy,” and “The Forest,” as well as “The Kiss,” which the artists consider the emblem of the exhibition. There will also be a gallery dedicated to his editorial and collage work, with rooms that will house large-format portraits of movie stars, artists, musicians and politicians (from Taylor Swift to Brad Pitt, including Billie Eilish), and areas dedicated to his flower photographs, closer to portraiture than still life.

No account of Inez & Vinoodh's work is complete without their contribution to fashion photography, which is also represented in the exhibition. Throughout their careers, the artists have shot campaigns for brands such as Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Chanel, and have had their photographs published in magazines such as Vogue, V Magazine, Visionaire, The New York Times Magazine and W Magazine.

In the words of writer Michael Bracewell, Inez and Vinoodh “manipulate the glossy surface of fashion photography into a psychological allegory.” Through its selection and curatorial approach, the retrospective “questions whether glamor truly offers a path to happiness,” according to the presenting museum.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog titled “Can Love Be a Photograph- 40 Years of Inez & Vinoodh”, which will include essays by Donatien Grau, Francesco Bonami, Pamela Chen and Willemijn van der Zwaan, as well as an interview by Tilda Swinton in which the creative duo reflects on their career and recurring themes.

This retrospective follows in the wake of a previous one dedicated to Inez and Vinoodh in 2010, which marks 25 years of collaboration between the photographers. Titled “Pretty Much Everything 1985–2010”, it premiered in the summer of 2010 in Amsterdam before traveling to São Paulo, Dallas and Stockholm.