The fashion photography exhibition Can Love Be a Photograph, at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, presents the first major retrospective of Dutch duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The show features one hundred fifty works, connecting fashion photography with fine art. It runs through September 6, 2026, at Stadhouderslaan 41 in The Hague.
A Building Built Around One Number
The museum sits inside a building designed by Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage, completed in 1935, shortly after his death. Today, Berlage is considered the father of modern Dutch architecture, a kind of bridge between traditionalists and modernists. His ideas shaped most Dutch architectural movements of the 1920s, including De Stijl and the Amsterdam School.
He was also a member of CIAM, the International Congress of Modern Architecture. In 1932, he received the Royal Gold Medal from Britain’s RIBA. Kunstmuseum Den Haag counts among his final works, alongside the Beurs van Berlage stock exchange in Amsterdam and the Jachthuis Sint-Hubertus hunting lodge.
The number eleven governs the entire design of the museum. Most of the four million yellow bricks follow proportions tied to this number, as do the window panes. Instead of artificial ceiling lighting, Berlage pushed for natural daylight, regulated through skylight louvers. Critics at the time compared the building to a factory or swimming pool. Still, the public and press embraced its colorful tiles and columns almost immediately.
A Museum of Mondrian and Fashion Alike
Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds the world’s largest collection of works by Piet Mondrian, including his final painting, Victory Boogie-Woogie. At the same time, the museum has long maintained an extensive fashion collection, with works by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Gabrielle Chanel, André Courrèges, and John Galliano. This exact combination of fine art and fashion makes it a natural home for an exhibition built on the very same connection.
The Kiss as a Central Motif
Inez and Vinoodh have worked together since 1986. However, they didn’t share their first kiss until 1992, during Paris Fashion Week. Since then, the kiss has become a recurring motif throughout their work. This series traces different stages of their relationship, from Lovingly in 1999 to Eternally in 2010, where Inez’s body appears almost as if her skin has been peeled away.
The Body in the 1990s
The duo ranks among the pioneers of digital manipulation in photography. The series Thank You Thighmaster emerged in 1993. At the time, Vinoodh and Inez lived together in New York’s Greenwich Village, during Inez’s residency at MoMA PS1. They watched television just as the internet and CNN’s 24-hour news cycle were taking shape. Advertisements for exercise machines inspired the series, in which they digitally smoothed models’ bodies into plastic, almost mannequin-like forms.
Fashion, Music, and Celebrity
For decades, the duo’s work has moved between art and fashion. They’ve photographed for Vogue and The New York Times Magazine, and created campaigns for Chanel, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. The exhibition includes their portraits of Prince, Björk, Kate Moss, and Natalie Portman. More recent portraits feature Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Rihanna with A$AP Rocky. A photograph of Alexander McQueen wearing a skull mask is also on view. Meanwhile, the 1998 series ME originated as an advertisement for Balenciaga, created right as Nicolas Ghesquière took over as the house’s new creative director.
Why Attention Is a Form of Love
The exhibition also explores attention as the rarest form of generosity, an idea once articulated by philosopher Simone Weil. The show includes a new series, Think Love (2025), shot on iPhone during their son Charles’s trip through Marfa. It also features the exhibition’s title work, showing Charles leaning over a photograph of his parents kissing, a reflection on his own family legacy.
Practical Information
Find Can Love Be a Photograph at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Stadhouderslaan 41, The Hague. The exhibition runs through September 6, 2026.
