MUNICH.- Following the lighthearted summer exhibition “Best of ‘ME + CO’ & ‘Pool Party’” by the French-Italian selfie king, Jean Pigozzi, Gallery IMMAGIS in Munich is presenting a first-class double exhibition. “Power Meets Poetry” showcases iconic as well as newly discovered works by photographers Sylvie Blum and Giovanni Gastel, paying tribute to strong women with an attractive juxtaposition of images from the 1990s to the present.

Sylvie Blum (b. 1967, Austria) is a classic example of a model turned photographer. The former model was photographed by the likes of Helmut Newton and Jan Saudek, and after marrying renowned erotic photographer Günter Blum she became his model and muse. Honing her photographic skills at the Mannheim College of Art, she moved behind the camera after Günter Blum’s death. The body of work she has developed since the end of the 1990s, inspired by photographers such as Leni Riefenstahl and Herb Ritts, depicts the female body in highly stylized and aesthetically arranged poses. Blum’s close-up images of brightly painted lips, minimalist portraits, and oiled athletic bodies also reflect her female perspective of her same-sex counterparts.

Sylvie Blum lives and works in Los Angeles, where she is represented by Fahey Klein Gallery.

Giovanni Gastel (b. 1955, Italy) is considered to be the grand seigneur of Italian fashion photography. Like no other, he interweaves poetry with classical commercial photography with a sense of elegance and reverie, while remaining stylistically flexible. The exhibition Power Meets Poetry presents Gastel’s enchanting images of women as angels, his butterfly scenarios, as well as front-facing portraits shot for fashion brands such as Krizia or magazines such as Vogue Spain. Through the air of romance that infuses his images time and again, his female models reveal strength in their stance and gaze. Gastel has drawn on both Renaissance and Pop Art for his work, while his love of poetry finds expression not only through photography but also through his own poems. He is Honorary President of the Association of Italian Professional Photographers, and a permanent member of the Polaroid Museum of Chicago. In 2002, he received fashion’s equivalent of the Oscar for photography at the prestigious Italian event La Kore, Oscar della Moda.

Giovanni Gastel lives and works in Milan; his works have been exhibited and published internationally.