Elfie Semotan’s work can’t be assigned to one specific genre. Even when shooting advertising photographs, Semotan is creating rather timeless dream images than ingratiating presentations of the object. The picture chosen for Edition EIKON was taken in 1978 in Kritzendorf and is one of Semotan’s earliest fashion photographs. The dramatic lighting and the glamourous styling of the model strongly contrast with the dim and vanishing background. The surroundings, an integral part of every composition Semotan’s, create a dreamy atmosphere.
With striking stylistic devices—the emphasis on gesture and the apparant non-orchestration—and her sharp observation skills, the photographer approaches the model and the fashion less with pure desire to sell but rather with a sensitivity for the relation between subject and object in a glittering consumer’s world.

For more information, please feel free to read the interview with Elfie Semotan by Ferdinand Schmatz in EIKON issue #114 (“A Walk Between Things”, EIKON #114, 26 – 37.)