Miles Aldridge (born 29 September 1964) is a British fashion photographer and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Early life

Born in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

to graphic designer

Alan Aldridge Alan Aldridge (8 July 1938 – 17 February 2017) was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He is best known for his psychedelic artwork made for books and record covers by The Beatles and The Who and for creating the original desig ...

, Miles grew up accustomed to celebrity –

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

was a family friend, as well as

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

and

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

. When he was a child, he posed with his father for

Lord Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017) was a British photographer. He is best known internationally for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue (magazine), Vogu ...

. At the age of 12, Alan Aldridge moved to Los Angeles where he formed a new family. Miles stayed in London with his mother Rita, a housewife, and his brother Marc and sister

Saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

. His two half-sisters

Lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

and

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

are models. He studied

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

at the Central St Martins to follow his father's steps and afterwards briefly directed pop videos (for bands including

The Verve The Verve were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones (musician), Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Sim ...

, The Charlatans and Catherine Wheel). He moved into photography by chance: he sent some photos of an aspiring model girlfriend to an agency and fell into fashion when ''

British Vogue ''British Vogue'' (stylised in all caps) is the British edition of the American Fashion journalism, fashion magazine Vogue (magazine), Vogue. The magazine was launched in 1916 by Condé Nast, linking together fashion and high society.König A ...

'' called him as well as her. By then he had hung out on shoots with his sister and travelled to New York in the mid-nineties, where he started working almost immediately.

Career

Initially Aldridge shot covers of the American monthly fashion magazine '' W'', then he worked for '' Numéro'', ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...

'', '' Vogue Nippon'', ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'', '' GQ'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', '' The Face'', ''Paradis'', and ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

''. For many years he has been an important contributor for Vogue Italia, building a solid friendship with Franca Sozzani. Aldridge worked as an advertising photographer for Longchamp,

MAC Cosmetics M A C Cosmetics is a Canadian cosmetics manufacturer founded in Toronto in 1984 by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo. The company has been headquartered in New York City since becoming a subsidiary of Estée Lauder Companies in 1998. MAC is an acron ...

, Sergio Rossi,

Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño, 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan Americans, Venezuelan American fashion designer. Known for her personal style, she founded her namesake brand in 1980. Herrera has designed for va ...

Lavazza Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. (), shortened and stylized as LAVAZZA, is an Italian manufacturer of coffee products. Founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza, it was initially run from a small grocery store at Via San Tommaso 10. The business (Italian: ...

and Mercedes E-Class, among the others. He shot for noted fashion designers such as

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld also called Kaiser Karl (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, photographer, and creative director. Lagerfeld began his career in fashion in the 1950s, working for several top fashion hous ...

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer and a billionaire. He first gained renown working for Cerruti 1881. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expanded into music, sport, and luxury hotels. By 200 ...

, Yves Saint Laurent and Paul Smith.

Exhibitions

Many private and public art galleries have hosted Aldridge's photographs around the world: in 2007 the

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

Art Photo Expo; in 2006 and in 2008 the Galerie Alex Daniels in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

with solo shows ''The Cabinet'' and ''Acid Candy''; in 2010 the Contributed Studio for the Arts in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and the Gallery Hotel Art in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. In 2009 Steven Kasher Gallery displayed ''Pictures for Photographs'', his first solo show in the United States. The exhibition and a

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

ic volume were the peak of a project combining drawings and photographs, born from a collaboration with

and Gerhard Steidl. In New York his work was showcased also at the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...

with am exhibition entitled ''Weird Beauty''. In the Summer of 2013,

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

in London hosted a major retrospective exhibition of the photographer entitled ''I Only Want You to Love Me'', which brings together large scale photographic prints of works produced during his career. Aldridge's photographs appear also in the permanent collection of the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

, London (with two portraits of

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

and Lily Cole), the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. and The British Museum. Selected solo exhibitionsChristophe Guye Galerie
Miles Aldridge (Biography)
/ref> * 2010: ''Lavazza 2010'', Foundation Centre of Photography/ Fundacja Centrum Fotografii, Poland * 2010: ''13 Women'', Contributed – Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany * 2011: ''Ein Bild von einem Auto'', Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany * 2013: ''Retrospective: I Only Want You to Love Me'', Somerset House, London, Great Britain Selected group exhibitions *2002: ''Archeology of Elegance'', Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany *2007: ''Art Photo Expo'', Art Basel, Miami Beach, United States *2008: ''Traum Frauen – 50 Starfotografen zeigen ihre Vision von Schönheit'', Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany *2008: ''Art Photo Expo'', Art Basel, Miami Beach, United States *2009: ''Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now – Year of Fashion'', ICP International Center of Photography, New York, United States *2010: ''A Positive View'', Somerset House, London, Great Britain *2011: ''Beauty Culture'', The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, United States *2011: ''Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography'', organised by the V&A, at Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton, Great Britain *2011: ''Ein Bild von einem Auto'', Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany *2012: ''Best of Fashion Photography'', Contributed Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany *2013: ''Dream Woman + Dream Men'', Central Exhibition Hall 'Manage', Saint-Petersburg, Russia *2013: ''New Fashion Photography'', Contributed Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany *2014: ''The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk'', The Brooklyn Museum, New York, United States *2014: ''The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk'', Barbican Art Gallery, London, Great Britain *2014: ''Aipad New York'', Aipad, New York, United States *2015: ''Sleepless - The Bed in History and Contemporary Art'', 21er Haus of the Belvedere, Vienna, Austria *2015: ''Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Conde Nast'', Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, United States *2015: ''Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Conde Nast'', Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia *2017: ''The Critic as Artist'', Reading Museum, Reading, Great Britain

Monographs

His monographs include ''Acid Candy'' (published by Reflex New Art Gallery,

, with an introduction by

Glenn O'Brien Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...

); ''The Cabinet'' (with an introduction by

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He is the lead singer and the only original member remaining of the Marilyn Manson (band), same-titled band he founded in 1989. Th ...

), ''Pictures for Photographs'' (published by

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher based in Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl, it publishes photobooks. Overview The company was started by Gerhard Steidl.Bill Kouwenhoven, "Off to see the wizard", ''British Journa ...

) and ''Other Pictures'' (2012,

). In 2013, Brancolini Grimaldi (London based

Art Gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

) announced a Rizzoli special edition of Aldridge's new book ''I Only Want You to Love Me'', limited to 200 signed and numbered copies. Aldridge's latest project is a book made in collaboration with stylist Nicola Formichetti and entitled ''Zero Zero Vol. 02'', that will be presented during the

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

Style

His influences include film directors

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...

, the photographer

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...

and the psychedelic graphic design of his father,

. His work is highly controlled with a cinematic effect.

Quotes

* ''Miles sees a color coordinated, graphically pure, hard-edged reality.'' —

* ''Miles Aldridge constructs dreams. That is his artistic and commercial practice. He understands the essential ingredients of the dream and he uses impeccable instinct in crafting something like "stills" from the fractured narratives that we normally experience nocturnally and unconsciously...he creates these dreams while illustrating today's fashions for their potential buyers. A dream can make you conquer a new land or buy a new hat or a painting or a philosophy. Aldridge knows that dreams are an exquisite tapestry of right and wrong, a chain of happenings in which what is "right," that is what is logical or normal, conflicts with what is wrong, what defies our waking order of things, our expectations and sensibility. Dreams disrupt what is perceived as reality. Dreams happen to some people. And some people make them happen.'' —

, from Introduction to ''Acid Candy'' * ''Miles Aldridge is a director at heart. His images are anything but portraits of a subject. They are his actors, his actresses...Each photograph has a very sacred pathology to every angle and obsession to detail. There is genius in the very ''deliberate'' blankness on the face of the models than enables a transference of identity. He always draws you into an arrested fetish that seems as forbidden as a little girl's diary.'' —

, from Introduction to ''The Cabinet'' * ''In his acid-coloured images of lascivious lips, impossibly glossed models and hallucinogenic still lives, the photographer Miles Aldridge is plainly heir to some of the twentieth century's enduring pop culture visionaries. David Lynch's surreal stylisation and interest in moths, the carefully staged elegance of Richard Avedon and the psychedelic graphic design of Alan Aldridge are all in there.'' — Skye Sherwin, '' Art Review'' April 2009

Bibliography

* 2006: ''The Cabinet'', Reflex Gallery, Amsterdam * 2008: ''Acid Candy'', Reflex Editions, Amsterdam * 2009: ''Pictures for Photographs'', Steidl, Germany * 2010: ''Kristen: As seen by Miles Aldridge and Chantal Joffe'', Reflex Editions, Amsterdam * 2013: ''Miles Aldridge: Other Pictures'', Steidl, Germany * 2013: ''Miles Aldridge: I Only Want You To Love Me'', Rizzoli International Publications * 2014: ''Miles Aldridge's Carousel'', Sims Reed Gallery, London * 2014: ''One Black & White and Nineteen Colour Photographs'', Reflex, Amsterdam * 2014: ''Miles of Mac'', Rizzoli, New York * 2016: ''Please return Polaroid'', Steidl, Germany * 2016: ''(after Cattelan)'', Colour Pictures, London

Selected featured publications

* 2015: ''Sleeples - The Bed in History and Contemporary Art'', 21er Haus Belvedere, Vienna * 2016: ''Bling Bling Baby!'', Hate Cantz Verlag GmbH, Germany

References

External links

* *
Miles Aldridge
on Models.com
Gallery
at Christophe Guye Galerie {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldridge, Miles Miles Alumni of Central Saint Martins English music video directors Photographers from London Living people 1964 births