Szilvezster Mako has reignited Vogue’s individualist artistic flare with an Italian Renaissance-esque compositional sensibility, combined with the revived spirit of the Dada and Bauhaus movements. If you too are underwhelmed by Vogue’s increasing reliance on celebrity faces to drive fashion popularity, and outraged by their inclusion of Al advertisement, let me introduce you to the reviving presence that is Szilvezster Mako.
Preempting the release of Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility, I purchased a copy of Vogue from my local supermarket. Daisy Edgar-Jones took the cover in an elegant, cuffed collar designed by superb stylist Grace Snell. Struck by the natural coquettish dynamism and bold geometricity of the cover, I eagerly flipped to the cover story. On one page, Edgar-Jones spreads out in a white pleated gown on a bed. The natural texture of the image caught my eye, as the photograph seemed to simultaneously emanate the tangibility of a Renaissance oil painting, and the dusty blue background projected the cool elegance of a James McNeill Whistler (Victorian era) painting. I immediately scanned for the photographer’s name, fascinated by these collaged elements which left the image in an extraordinary realm between two, and three dimensions. Who is this brilliant mind that had revived my faith in the artistic legacy of Vogue?
Sylvester Mako, the Hungarian born photographer, spent a childhood studying classics and engaging in arts and craft. His background is evident in his utilisation of handcrafted materials, natural light and methods of early photography. In an interview with Clare Healy, he poetically expressed his love for ‘true materials’ explaining how “without my natural light I start to sweat;” the new vogue superstar clearly has the soul of a young Ernst Ludwig Kirchner or Claude Monet.
In a culture of oversharing, Mako’s privacy about his exact photographic process is also refreshing. That said, his works, both dustily ethereal and also strikingly sharp, do appear to emanate old-timey daguerreotype images from the 1860s. Mako notes “Very few people process images in this way, because it’s so tiring!” Indeed, the photographic process involves a silver coated metal plate being exposed to light sensitive chemicals to produce these well-defined images. For instance, in Willem Defoe’s Vogue photoshoot, this monotone method effectively transports one to the early days of photography, creating a sense of timelessness so integral to the charm of Mako’s work. Defoe’s sculptural formal-wear, cuffed sleeves, rectangular trousers, accompanied by a tilted prismoid backdrop reduces the human form to a geometric pattern. This quasi-Cubist manner of photography diverts attention away from the fame or familiarity of world famous individuals, and instead explores the silhouette as a main subject, reasserting fashion’s transformative power to morph human form. Thus, Sylvester Mako forces painterly engagement with the photograph itself rather than a passive absorption of superficial aesthetics.
Reoccurring surrealist elements also creep into Mako’s photoshoots, including a dollhouse hat that sits atop Willem Defoe’s head! In another, Kate Blanchet is wrapped up inside a paper bag, holding a large pink comb, tilted in a way that edges playfully into the grotesque. Blanchet and Defoe seem to be dolls in Mako’s absurdist world, slotted into unfathomable silhouettes. This wonderful individuality brought the pre-artificial-intelligence age flooding back, making me nostalgically reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s 1939 surrealist Vogue cover of metamorphic women with flower heads, and of Cecil Beaton’s use of Henri Matisse’s prints as Vogue photoshoot backdrops in 1949.
Whatsmore, Mako evokes the Renaissance masters in his devotion to a Cremona violin colour palette, dark backgrounds, and crisp subjective isolation, perhaps bringing to mind works like Leonardo Davinci’s Lady with an Ermine. In a photoshoot with Gwendoline Christie, Mako’s Renaissance and Dada informants converge, and are polished with a classical precision in minute details such as sculptural curls of hair. However, despite creating highly complex pieces no one image is overwhelmed. They are saved by compositional mastery, which is driven by inspiring personal passion. Such passion matters in a contemporary world where artistic ambition is under existential threat from AI.
“Vogue” by mespechesmignons is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
