Brigitte Niedermair
Brigitte Niedermair appears almost an anomalous figure in the panorama of fashion photography because of the ability she has always had to introduce the spirit and elements of her in-depth personal research into her commercial work.We see in this picture a female figure totally wrapped in a black nijab. We imagine an oriental woman, but the traditional Christmas cake (chunked ) around her neck is a declaration of love in German. Birgitte Niedermair portrays the female figure in stylistically perfect “mise en scène”, putting the female body and the contradictions of Western society at the centre of her series.
Brigitte Niedermair appears almost an anomalous figure in the panorama of fashion photography because of the ability she has always had to introduce the spirit and elements of her in-depth personal research into her commercial work. The image in the collection, from the series Bibel bird & Fire, taken in 1996, caused a great scandal and debate when it was exhibited at the Foto-Forum Gallery in Bolzano. The model is in fact wearing, with a provocative and aggressive attitude, the costume (borrowed from the Merano Women’s Museum) traditionally reserved in South Tyrol for virgin girls.
BRIGITTE NIEDERMAIR takes portraits of the female figure in perfect stagings. In the field of staged photography, she has worked in the fashion sector, realising editorials and advertising campaigns. She places the body and the contradictions of Western society at the centre of her series as in The Last Supper (2005), an all-female Last Supper with diaphanous models in the place of the apostles; Madame Hirsch (2009), a sequence of sets and poses arranged by the protagonist in the role of herself. Her approach has become increasingly minimalist and conceptual, from Dust (2007) and Eden (2012), to the recent Transition_Giorgio Morandi and Are you still there (2014), united by a change of perspective and focus, like an invitation to look beyond the horizon, towards the infinite. *She was born in Merano in 1971, she lives and works between Milan and Paris.