Miles Aldridge

Early life

Born in North London to graphic designer Alan Aldridge, Miles grew up accustomed to celebrity – John Lennon was a family friend, as well as Eric Clapton and Elton John. When he was a child, he posed with his father for Lord Snowdon. 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 half brother Marc Aldridge and sister Saffron Aldridge. His two half-sisters Lily Aldridge and Ruby Aldridge are also models. He studied illustration at the Central St Martins to follow his father's steps and afterwards briefly directed pop videos (for bands including The Verve, 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 called him as well as her. By then he had hung out on shoots with his sister and traveled 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, Vogue Nippon, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The New Yorker, The Face, Paradis and Harper's Bazaar. 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, Sergio Rossi, Carolina Herrera, Lavazza and Mercedes E-Class, among the others. He shot for noted fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent e Paul Smith.

Exhibitions

Many private and public art galleries have hosted Aldridge's photographs around the world: in 2007 the Miami Beach Art Photo Expo; in 2006 and in 2008 the Galerie Alex Daniels in Amsterdam with solo shows The Cabinet and Acid Candy; in 2010 the Contributed Studio for the Arts in Berlin and the Gallery Hotel Art in Florence.

In 2009 Steven Kasher Gallery displayed Pictures for Photographs, his first solo show in the United States. The exhibition and a monographic volume were the peak of a project combining drawings and photographs, born from a collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld and Gerhard Steidl. In New York his work was showcased also at the International Center of Photography with am exhibition entitled Weird Beauty.

In the Summer of 2013, Somerset House 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, London (with two portraits of Jarvis Cocker and Lily Cole) and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions

Publications

His monographs include Acid Candy (published by Reflex New Art Gallery, Amsterdam, with an introduction by Glenn O'Brien); The Cabinet (with an introduction by Marilyn Manson), Pictures for Photographs (published by Steidl) and Other Pictures (2012, Steidl).

In 2013, Brancolini Grimaldi (London based Art Gallery in Somerset House) 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.

Bibliography

Selected Featured Publications

Style

His influences include film directors Derek Jarman, David Lynch, Federico Fellini, Antonioni, the photographer Richard Avedon and the psychedelic graphic design of his father, Alan Aldridge. His work is highly controlled with a cinematic effect.

Writing on Miles Aldridge's Work