Creative fantasies

‘What’s your ultimate fantasy?’ the question fashion photographer Yves de Contades is asking 40 figures from the UK creative industry this week – who have posed for his exhibition Fantasy Portraits.

The one-day exhibition will take place this Thursday at The Worx Studios in West London. De Contades captures the quirky imaginings of the design industry’s creative minds, by letting each subject express their personality in a photographic shoot – some opted to be as tall as Big Ben, others dressed up in a style from a certain period, one creative even had a bizarre fantasy of fighting a dragon on a snowboard – all of which de Contades makes into a CGI reality.

The idea came about as de Contades wanted to explore the psychology of creativity. ‘I find creative people really interesting and wondered how they would approach branding themselves in front of the camera,’ he says.

De Contades, who is also joint creative director of International Life magazine, then asked clinical psychologist Dr Cecilia d’Felice to analyse the fantasy and come up with a comment about each creative.

The 40x50cm portraits were shot on the new Leica S2-system, which is the latest medium format digital camera from Leica.  De Contades photographed design legends including David Hillman, Navyblue’s Geoff Nichol and even himself floating with the Leica in a weird swimming pool fantasy. We wonder what Dr d’Felice would say about this.

Fantasy Portraits by Yves de Contades, 10 June, The Worx Studios, 10 Heathmans Road, Parsons Green, London SW6