Inez & Vinoodh. THINK LOVE.
Project Room #21, Paris
From November 13 until December 12, 2025
Entering India Mahdavi’s Project Room #21, from November 13 to December 12, 2025, feels a bit like stepping into a visual diary that speaks of love, memory, and discovery. The exhibition space doesn’t simply display photographs: it wraps around us, immersing us in images that hold the legacy of a forty-year story—the story of the artistic duo Inez & Vinoodh, as they await their major retrospective CAN LOVE BE A PHOTOGRAPH, opening at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in March 2026. As we move along the walls of the space, an immediate sensation catches us off guard: these works seem to radiate an energy that never quite runs out. Inez & Vinoodh are avant-garde by nature; since the early 1990s, they have broken conventions, being among the first to recognize that digital technology would become not just a tool, but a new language—one capable of giving form to emotions and inner worlds. What we witness today is a continuous dialogue: between their experimental past and a present in which photography reinvents itself through the arrival of new mediums.
Moving between fashion and art, there is something captivating in the way these two artists inhabit both worlds at once. Looking at their images displayed in the Project Room, you can sense how these realms brush against and influence each other: a portrait carries the refinement of an editorial, while a more conceptual scene holds the sincerity of a personal confession. At the heart of the exhibition: a kiss beneath a red veil. And then there it is—THINK LOVE., the triptych that gives the show its title. It’s an image that captures your attention instantly. Two lovers—the artists Charles Matadin and Natalie Brumley—kiss beneath a translucent ruby-colored veil. It is a kiss that conveys the exhilaration of love, and at the same time the kind of intimacy that belongs only to deep connections. As we draw closer, we can almost sense the symbolic echo of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss: the denim structure enveloping Charles hints at the masculine principle, while the soft lace draping Natalie becomes an allusion to the feminine movement.
“Our work, however well planned, depends on improvisation. The delicate exchange with our subjects in the moment is key to our process. The iPhone’s immediacy and intimacy while preserving the highest photographic quality, has been a game-changer for us.”
Behind the two lovers, in the signature photograph of the exhibition, stretches a Texan landscape that hints at a journey toward a fragile future—one in which escaping into nature becomes an essential condition for any possible “paradise.” The works on display were shot in Marfa, Texas, as part of the traveling exhibition Joy, In 3 Parts, curated by Kathy Ryan in collaboration with Apple. There is a detail most visitors will notice only when reading the captions: these images are among the very first ever created with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Not as an amateur experiment, but as a fully fledged professional exploration. And as we look at the colors, the light, the details emerging with striking clarity, we realize just how deeply the device has become woven into contemporary photographic practice—an immediate reflection that resonates with all of us. By offering artists a creative space free from editorial or commercial demands, Apple seems to say: “Here is a tool. Make it an extension of your gaze.” And Inez & Vinoodh have done exactly that, with a natural ease that reveals what it means to use technology not as a constraint, but as a new territory to explore with curiosity and enthusiasm.
Curated by Kathy Ryan, the traveling exhibition revolves around a word that is both simple and complex: joy. Walking through the Project Room, you can feel its echo everywhere. It’s the warmth of a young love, the peace and serenity of a bond shaped over time. And as we stand there, surrounded by these breathing images, we realize that India Mahdavi’s mission—to bring culture into the heart of the neighborhood she loves—is taking shape right before our eyes. This is the first photography exhibition hosted within her series of Project Rooms, and yet it feels as though the space had always been destined to welcome this reflection on love, creativity, and human connection. Leaving the exhibition, the world outside seems slightly changed. Perhaps it’s only an illusion, or perhaps these photographs have left a subtle trace on us: the urge to look more closely, to recognize beauty even in the simplest moments.
For further information theravestijngallery.com.
