The team met in England in the early '90s and began working together in the photography business. Their first project together for “Dazed and Confused,” a London fashion magazine, landed the cover. The rest, as they say, is history.
What makes them different from other photographers, they say, is that they care a lot about fashion. "We are in the makeup room, working with the hair, involved in the look much more than working on the lighting, the cables, the gels. The technical side is only 50% of what makes the image,” says Alas.
Their inspiration comes from Guy Bourdin’s '70s-era advertising for Charles Jourdan. "The secret of a strong campaign is a great image and a great character," says Alas. "You have to communicate an essence without words, without touch, without sound or smell. Obviously, we are here to sell a product—you can't disguise that fact—but the trick is to say that message in an unconventional way, where it doesn't become just about that sale. You need to maintain the identity of the message and feelings and emotions of the designers. At the end of the day, the greater the image, the greater the character you associate with it. You see J. Lo's bag in Times Square or on the Avenue Montaigne, and if you have the same one, you feel special, part of the gang. That's when the image works."
And they know how to make an image work. See below some of our favorite cover photographs by Mert and Marcus through the years.
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