Photography’s relationship to fashion has long been defined by surface and spectacle. This year, a series of exhibitions across Europe foreground a different set of concerns: memory, authorship and the politics of representation. Nhu Xuan Hua’s digitally reworked family photographs are marked by migration and intergenerational silence, whilst Rico Puhlmann’s fashion imagery is reimagined by a new generation of photographers. Elsewhere, carefully staged still lifes, queer portraiture and redefined fashion bodies point to photography’s continued capacity to adapt. The exhibitions gathered here question who is visible within photographic history and on what terms, pushing the trajectory of the medium in new, exciting directions.
Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire
Autograph, London | Opens 16 April
Autograph presents the first UK solo exhibition of French-Vietnamese artist Nhu Xuan Hua. The photographer works at the intersection of art and fashion photography, reflecting on the fragility of memory and the ways stories are communicated – or withheld – across generations. Hua was born and raised in Paris to immigrant parents who fled to Europe after the war in Vietnam (1955 – 1975), growing up “feeling a palpable distance for her Vietnamese heritage. Questions about the past were often met with the refrain ‘why are you asking? The past belongs to the past.’” This loss of vocabulary was compounded by her father, who is deaf and communicates in spoken Vietnamese and a broken, self-taught form of French Sign Language. These silences, formed through migration and cultural rupture, reverberate through the diluted contours of bodies in her reworked family photographs, where figures merge and dissolve.
Rico Reframed: New Perspectives on Rico Puhlmann’s Fashion Photography
Museum für Fotografie, Berlin | Until 15 February
For more than four decades, Rico Puhlmann has shaped fashion imagery, developing his own language that incorporated elegance, clarity and choreographed scenes. Now, Museum für Fotografie presents the work of 15 photography students who engage with the artist in a variety of ways. The exhibition runs alongside a larger retrospective, and together they open up new interpretations of the canon. Those featured ask: how can Puhlmann’s understanding of style, identity and photography be read today, at a time when diversity, visibility and representation are being redefined? The students transfer his elegant style onto today’s urban spaces, as well as examining his interest in movement and physicality. The zeitgeist and societal norms of the mid-20th century also come to the fore, with self-assertion; the queer realities of life; the breaking down of normative images of beauty and the body drawn into question.
Foam, Amsterdam | Until 22 February
Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm began collaborating in 1997. Since then, they have become leading figures in international fashion photography, known for blurring the line between editorial work and autonomous art. At first glance, their images appear serene and meticulously composed. Yet, they depict moments that could never unfold so quietly in real life: a falling glass, a collage of objects forming a face, where even the slightest shift in perspective could cause the entire composition to collapse. What might seem digitally manipulate today, Blommers & Schumm have in fact constructed entirely in front of the camera lens – if only for the brief moment the photograph was taken. The artists have developed a singular visual language, both conceptually rich and visually striking. They challenge the conventions of fashion photography, embrace the unexpected and invite viewers to reconsider what they see and how they see it.
Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends
National Portrait Gallery, London | Opens 8 October
Tim Walker’s Fairyland is an exploration of queer identity, community and love through the lens of one of Britain’s foremost photographers. Walker rose to prominence in the 1990s with his unique style of whimsical photography inspired by fairytales and adventures. He has captured famous faces including Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga, Pet Shop Boys, Hunter Schafer, Miriam Margolyes and Frank Ocean, with his work featured in international magazines including Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, LOVE, Another Man and i-D. In preparation for this exhibition, he spent the past five years photographing dozens of activists, performers, artists and writers in his inimitable style. These new pictures are the result of Walker’s quest to connect with queer trailblazers in Britain and beyond. This exhibition will take visitors on a journey into Walker’s inner world – a vivid tapestry woven from his many inspirations and influences.
Rafael Pavarotti, Photographer
Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris | Opens 2 October
Rafaek Pavarotti was first introduced to photography at the age of 12, after stealing his father’s camera. Four years later, attracted by the fashion industry, he left his home of Pará in the Amazon rainforest for Rio, then São Paulo and London, before settling in Paris. He’s directed series for prestigious fashion magazines such as Vogue, i-D, Acne Paper and The New York Times and his photographic style is established in the world of fashion and marks the campaigns of many houses such as Dior, Balmain, Margiela, Ferragamo and L’Oréal. The artist follows one clear aim: “to work for future generations by creating models that will allow all children to recognise and project themselves, regardless of their skin colour.” Pavarotti questions the political and social dimensions of the industry, telling stories: his own, but also those of the models.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Anita Schulte-Bunert, Süßwasser (2025), talent: Michelle Pappert via Izaio Management, styling: Manon Zoë Eichberger, Analog medium format and full frame, Fine Art Prints Foto: Anita Schulte-Bunert.
2. Nhu Xuan Hua, The one who couldn’t talk [detail], 2021. © the artist.
3. Lilith Kirsch, Untitled (2025), talent: Anita Schulte-Bunert, design: Rosalba Faroqhi, Alena Ebba Keppler, Fine Art Prints. Foto: Lilith Kirsch.
4. © Blommers & Schumm.
5. Flower Fairy Collage II © Tim Walker.
6. Rafael Pavarotti — Nyaueth Riam et Mamuor Awak dans des tenues Bottega Veneta par Matthieu Blazy (2022) © Vogue, Septembre 2022.
