LENA KNAPPOVA: I´LL DO MY OWN LASHES

Lena Knappova, originally from Trenčín, is a photographer who has been working in fashion, music, and photography for almost ten years. She is mainly active in the environment of Paris Fashion Week, where she focuses on documenting the backstage of fashion shows. Her work is a brilliant depiction of many intimate physical moments, controlled chaos, rawness, work, and dedication. The author’s approach is based on classic documentary photography, with the ability to capture a “unique moment,” but at the same time, there is something punk and street culture about it, which contrasts with the refined environment of high society, which prides itself on its refined taste for fashion design. For her work to date, spanning roughly a decade, Lena Knappova was awarded first place in the Czech Grand Design competition as Photographer of the Year 2024.

I’ll do my own lashes is based on one of the most frequently uttered phrases backstage at fashion shows. It refers to the minutes before the models step onto the catwalk and the teams of assistants prepare them for that moment. Among other things, they begin to curl their eyelashes with metal tweezers, a very intimate and sensitive process that takes place millimeters from the eye itself. It is at this moment that the model utters the phrase that she would rather do her own eyelashes because she does not trust strangers…

Curator: Robert Musil

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