Photographer #371: Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm

Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm, both 1969, the Netherlands, met while studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Since graduating they work as a team on fashion, portrait and still-life photography. In 1997 they were asked by fashion designers Viktor & Rolf to shoot for Purple magazine. The result launched them into the fashion photography world. As this was a discipline they did not feel comfortable with, they started to play with the conventions of fashion and photography. It lead to a unique approach, often using friends as models as they were more interested in the person than the clothing. The hyper-real photographs were revolutionary in which identity and desire played important roles. In 2006 they released the book Anita and 124 other portraits, showing a collection of their work between 1996 and 2006. The portraits are presented alphabetically, creating unexpected combinations. They have been published in numerous books and catalogues as well as many of the leading fashion magazines. The following images come from various shoots within their portfolio.

Website: www.blommers-schumm.com