Inez van Lamsweerde.

In the fashion world, when someone says "pop" they usually mean "fabulous." The fashion image promises happiness through glamour, which relates to the adoration of stars in the Warholian sense--Andy's perfect merging of art and fashion. But it's precisely the glamour of the fashion world that makes it hard for some in the art world to view my work without suspicion, even though I'm only making images for their most dynamic context--whatever that might be. I'm just as pleased with something I do for a glossy ad campaign as for a gallery. In the early '70s, thinking about commerce as an artist wasn't done--advertising was a dirty word. Today, the fashion world idolizes the art world, and while artists still trade on their bohemian credibility, many also thrive on fancy clothes, swell parties, and paparazzi pictures that promote their work and themselves as celebrities. Still, we need new ways to think and see. It would be amazing if the fashion photograph could be understood as a site that allows experiments with performance and with bodies. But from all sides, more restraints continue to emerge, despite art's potential to pop up almost anywhere.--AS TOLD TO BRUCE HAINLEY

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