Rome, photographer Max Vadukul stars at MAXXI with an exhibition dedicated to women

After the great success in Dubai and Milan, from May 8 to 19, 2024, the photographic exhibition Through Her Eyes - Timeless Strength. by photographer Max Vadukul arrives inside the Corner of MAXXI - National Museum of the Arts of the XXI Century in Rome, representing a tribute to the figure of woman.

Through Her Eyes is a journey in 40 black-and-white shots into theeternal feminine: the artist’s gaze crosses centuries and traditions to give us the gift of a representation of woman, discovering in our eyes a multifaceted figure, in constant relationship with the roles she plays in society and with her own inner world. Inspirational muse and unique protagonist of her latest artistic quest is the ethereal Top Model Ludmilla Voronkina Bozzetti.

The exhibition opens in the capital on the threshold of the day dedicated to Mother’s Day, one of the many facets of the feminine world celebrated by Max: the mother of yesterday’s memories, the mother in today’s world and the face of tomorrow’s mothers.

The exhibition of Through Her Eyes - Timeless Strength at MAXXI in Rome is made possible thanks to the support of Banca Ifis, the initiative’s main sponsor. The challenger bank, which specializes in supporting the country’s Small and Medium Enterprises, is active in supporting the art world through "Ifis art," the project that brings together all of the Bank’s initiatives in the arts.

“The idea is totally and 100 percent inspired by my story and one woman, Ludmilla,” declares Max Vadukul, who continues, “Behind my lens, I am always vigilant, my eye is curious, my reflexes quick, but all aimed at discovering the uniqueness of the subject in front of me. I recently had the privilege of capturing a subject who was unusually silent, but dominated the set with his commanding presence. As I learned more about Ludmilla, I was fascinated and inspired to design a Photographic Art story entirely around her, a tribute I called Through Her Eyes - Timeless Strength. It has been an extraordinary journey in which a vision of pure strength has emerged.”

“I am really proud to have been the inspirational muse and sole protagonist of this extraordinary project created by the legendary Max Vadukul,” says Ludmilla, who has shown that she is as much at home on the catwalks and photographic sets of the most renowned fashion brands as she is as the protagonist of a project with high artistic value and harbinger of a powerful message “A great work that puts the focus on women by enhancing them. With enormous care, attention and delicacy, I have tried to represent the thousand facets of being a woman, always emphasizing the timeless strength that characterizes us and has made us and makes us protaginists over the centuries. It is a great honor that, after Gallerie d’Italia, one of the most important museums of contemporary art such as MAXXI has decided to welcome our project, thus amplifying our message of love and beauty of the world of women.”

Ludmilla is simultaneously daughter, wife, mother, seductress, worker; she is absorbed and detached, sometimes sad and pensive, but also strong, confident and triumphant. She is one, none and a hundred thousand: an independent spirit, at the center of social and family life, in dialogue with her inner self and her own space. Vadukul shows that woman is an infinite kaleidoscope of different perspectives and worlds, an infinite feminine world that cannot be simplified into a single angle.

In each shot, her piercing gaze awakens in the viewer a deep awareness of the impossibility of labeling her: she is simultaneously everything, encompassing life in her womb and the future in her hands. Vadukul’s art becomes, in this way, a tribute to the history of women, to their progress through the world over the centuries. Ludmilla’s feminine energy and strength - traversing history and exploding in the artist’s shots - recall in the heart of the viewer the everlasting respect due to woman.

The Through Her Eyes - Timeless Strength art project was born in 2021, when at the shooting for Roberto Cavalli’s Zero Collection, Vadukul met Ludmilla, one of the cast models. Max was thunderstruck: “She was different, really different. She had a history and a past; a real strength and I started photographing her over and over again. In fact, I felt I had found someone who could create strong Vadukul images. I wanted to create an art project with her,” says the photographer.

Continuing to reflect on his latest work, Vadukul shares, “The exhibition, consisting of 40 large black and white prints, is a testament to the incomparable power of an individual, an essence notoriously difficult to capture on photographic paper. This solo exhibition, focused exclusively on a woman, is a tribute to her ability to personify the variety of characters I have imagined. The compelling result of this project simply left me speechless.”

The shoot was held inside Villa Gattoni in Meleti (Lodi), a space frozen in time, an ideal place to create a timeless tale of memories for Ludmilla. The spaces of the villa were redesigned in a cinematic key by the careful eye of Nicoletta Santoro, artistic director of the shoot, former Creative Director of Town and Country, Fashion Director of Vogue China, contributor to Vanity Fair US, Vogue France, Vogue Italia and Egoiste.

Max Vadukul (British, born 1961) is one of the world’s most highly regarded photographers. Vadukul was discovered in 1984 by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, who assigned him one of his prestigious advertising campaigns when he was only twenty-two years old: it was the first of several Yamamoto campaigns for Vadukul. Starting in the 1990s, Max began his editorial career working for Vogue France and Vogue Italia and The New Yorker. In 2000 National Geographic made a documentary about his art, still distributed and available online. He photographs regularly for: The New York Times, Vogue France, Vogue UK, Vogue Germany, Vogue America, Vogue Japan, Vogue China, Style Magazine, Esquire, Egoiste, Town & Country, T Magazine.

In addition, Vadukul has emerged as one of the world’s foremost portrait photographers, capturing hundreds of subjects, such as Mother Teresa, Leonardo Di Caprio, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul McCarney, Sting, Donald Trump, Yves Saint Laurent, Christina Aguilera, Natalie Portman, Bruce Springsteen, and as many as 40 Nobel laureates.

Ludmilla Voronkina Bozzetti was born in Sochi, Russia, and at only 15 years old was selected by one of Moscow’s most prestigious modeling agencies. After a few months, she gets her first cover for Bazaar Russia, winning the award for best cover of the year. At the age of sixteen, she obtained an international passport and began to travel to the most prestigious Fashion Weeks runways and the best photo studios in Paris, Milan, Moscow, Hamburg, Tokyo and Taiwan.

Numerous long-term collaborations with the most prestigious brands, including Etro, Versace, Cucinelli and Cavalli. Protagonist of several editorials for the most prestigious Fashion magazines, including Vogue Russia, Vogue Italia, Bazaar Russia, She Russia, Diva e Donna, Donna Moderna and multiple advertising campaigns including Tricot Shic, Clips and in recent times Roberto Cavalli, Kiton and Chiara Boni with extraordinary worldwide circulation. Particularly appreciated by leading designers such as Fausto Puglisi and world-renowned photographers such as Max Vadukul, with whom he has numerous collaborations. In July 2022, he was awarded the prestigious “TAOMODA TOP MODEL AWARD” for his career.

For all information, you can visit the official MAXXI website.

Rome, photographer Max Vadukul stars at MAXXI with an exhibition dedicated to women

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