Sarah Moon is one of fashion’s best kept secrets – a photographer whose pictures often veer into the emotional headspace of fine art and expression. This September, the artist will be getting two major exhibitions in the city of Milan to celebrate and showcase her immense body of work spanning four decades.

L’avant-dernière" 2008, by Sarah Moon, courtesy of the Fondazione Sozzani.

From One Season to Another

The first is titled 'From One Season to Another’, and it will be hosted by the Armani/Silos museum. This exhibition will focus more sharply on Moon’s photographic work, and is fittingly curated by the artist herself. It counts over a hundred and seventy photographs in total, and spans the gamut of Moon’s iconoclastic fashion images, lesser known still lifes, and – quite excitingly – a dance series inspired by the Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer from the late 90s shown for the first time in full.

 

This abstract mix is designed to allow the viewer room for free association and a stream of consciousness response to the work. Giorgio Armani cited “timelessness and elegance” as hallmarks of Moon’s work that fascinate him, calling them “kindred spirits” who share a “mutual proclivity for simplicity”.

Cotinga du Pérou et Trichoglossus du Timor, 2000, by Sarah Moon, courtesy of the Fondazione Sozzani.

Time At Work

At the Fondazione Sozzani – Carla Sozzani’s museum – “Time At Work” will be put on to explore the more personal side of Sarah Moon’s life. This exhibition will trace the artist’s path from 1995 to 2018, accompanied by 90 photographs and two films: the first, “There’s Something About Lillian”, 2002, a documentary about the artist Lillian Bassman; and the second, “Contacts”, 1995, a short that encapsulates Moon’s surrealist and enigmatic style.

It's a Cinch. Carmen, New York. Harper's Bazaar, September 1951. Photograph by Lillian Bassman.

In other words, Time At Work is a story about the passage of time – an undercurrent motif that is often present in Moon’s work. The photographer often used Polaroid cameras, using the filmic slowness of the form to great effect with motion blur, and an evocative and emotional softening in focus. It’s a kind of straightforward combination of her aesthetic eye, the old medium employed, and a desire to capture fleeting beauty. She says herself that this exhibition is “the story of time passing; how time erases.” Tantalisingly, she “found these positives of Polaroids I didn’t fix. Some were unexpected, others just spoiled, many erased little by little.” Those positives in question will be shown at Time At Work.

 
Main image: La Robe á pois, 1996, by Sarah Moon.
Thumbnail image: Audrey, 1998, by Sarah Moon.

“From One Season to Another” will be exhibited at Armani/Silos; “Time At Work” will be exhibited at Fondazione Sozzani; both shows will open on 19 September 2018 and run til 6 January 2019.