New Interview
Inez & Vinoodh

Inez & Vinoodh: “What is reality?”

April 15, 2026

Inez and Vinoodh, in your opinion as photographers, is reality important when we’re thinking about art?

Inez van Lamsweerde: Not in our opinion! We’re not excited by reality, we never were. The idea of a photograph as a purveyor of truth, for us, was always questionable, because you point your camera and you decide to take the picture of something and not to take a picture of something else, you’re already manipulating reality.

Vinoodh Matadin: And if you think about it, reality always changes. So, what is reality?

IVL: Exactly. When we started working with the computers in the early nineties, we realized that we can form reality into whatever we wanted. We’ve shot girls in a studio and then put them on a beach or in a disco. We love this uncanny feeling that makes you look at a work of ours and go, “Wait — I'm seeing something real, but it can't be real. Something is strange here.” There is a joy in being able to disrupt reality, to shoot it and then through digital manipulation, change it again.

If, as you said, photography is not the purveyor of truth, what is it the purveyor of?

IVL: For us, it’s love. We always talk about Simone Weil's statement that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity — this is how we experience taking a picture. Someone will come into our studio to be photographed, and immediately we are thinking, “Okay, what does this person need from me right now? What lifts them up? What constructs them anew? What is the thing that's so magnificent about them that we want to heighten?” We are trying to ask ourselves: how do we truly see this person in our view? And then it's that interaction, these sort of arrows of energy that go to that person. And then what comes back through the lens to us is this beautiful exchange of trust and attention and collaboration.

Inspiration
Inspiration
Oscar Winners
World Guide

Explore the world and get inspired

Explore
Last week’s Interview
Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Autumn Durald Arkapaw: “It’s an out of body experience”

April 7, 2026

Ms. Arkapaw, as a cinematographer, how did you develop your taste in the visual?

It started probably with my grandparents on my mother's side. They traveled a lot, and they took a lot of photographs, my grandmother had tons of photo books that I remember we would always look through. I had a relationship with photographs when I was growing up, it was a way that I could connect with family members or see the world, see where they traveled. Then I started doing my own photography in high school, I wanted to do my undergrad in art history so that I could become a curator or get an internship at Sotheby's. That was the path that I was on. But then I went to LMU and took a film genre course and I started to understand films. We watched Broadway Danny Rose, Raging Bull, stuff like that… So the visual medium has always been on my mind.

What other films sparked inspiration for you visually? I read that in college you and your roommate would re-watch Trainspotting and Heat — two pretty different ends of the visual spectrum.

Yes, we would literally watch Trainspotting or Heat every day because there's just so much energy and excitement in those films. They made us feel, they kind of woke you up. To watch something multiple times, I mean, obviously you enjoy it, but also every time you find something new. It's a very visceral experience.

Editor’s Picks
David Chipperfield

David Chipperfield“There is no defining moment”

Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan“Show them life”

Paolo Roversi

Paolo Roversi“My life is full of pictures I didn’t take”

Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan“I’m more inquisitive now than ever”

Oscar Winners