Miles Aldridge

Miles Aldridge (born 1964) is a British fashion photographer and artist. His monographs include Acid Candy; The Cabinet (2006); Pictures for Photographs (2009); and Other Pictures (2013). Aldridge's work is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

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 brother Marc and sister Saffron. His two half-sisters Lily and Ruby are 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 travelled 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, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue Italia. Aldridge worked as an advertising photographer for Longchamp, MAC Cosmetics, Sergio Rossi, Carolina Herrera, Lavazza and Mercedes E-Class. He shot for fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Paul Smith.

In 2009, the exhibition and monographic volume Pictures for Photographs were the peak of a project combining drawings and photographs, born from a collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld and Gerhard Steidl.

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

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2008: Acid Candy, Galerie Alex Daniels, Amsterdam 2009: Pictures for Photographs, Steven Kasher Gallery 2010: Lavazza 2010, Foundation Centre of Photography/ Fundacja Centrum Fotografii, Poland 2010: 13 Women, Contributed – Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany 2010: Gallery Hotel Art, Florence 2011: Ein Bild von einem Auto, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany 2013: Retrospective: I Only Want You to Love Me, Somerset House, London Weird Beauty, International Center of Photography, New York

Group exhibitions 2002: Archeology of Elegance, Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany 2007: The Cabinet, Art Photo Expo, Art Basel, Miami Beach, United States 2008: Traum Frauen – 50 Starfotografen zeigen ihre Vision von Schönheit, Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany 2008: Art Photo Expo, Art Basel, Miami Beach, United States 2009: Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now – Year of Fashion, ICP International Center of Photography, New York 2010: A Positive View, Somerset House, London 2011: Beauty Culture, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, United States 2011: Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography, organised by the V&A, at Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton, UK 2011: Ein Bild von einem Auto, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany 2012: Best of Fashion Photography, Contributed Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany 2013: Dream Woman + Dream Men, Central Exhibition Hall 'Manage', Saint-Petersburg, Russia 2013: New Fashion Photography, Contributed Studio for the Arts, Berlin, Germany 2014: The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, The Brooklyn Museum, New York 2014: The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, Barbican Art Gallery, London 2014: Aipad New York, Aipad, New York, United States 2015: Sleepless - The Bed in History and Contemporary Art, 21er Haus of the Belvedere, Vienna, Austria 2015: Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Conde Nast, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, United States 2015: Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Conde Nast, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow 2017: The Critic as Artist, Reading Museum, Reading, UK 2020: Virgin Mary. Supermarkets. Popcorn. Photographs 1999 to 2020, Fotografiska Stockholm, Sweden 2021: Virgin Mary. Supermarkets. Popcorn. Photographs 1999 to 2020, Fotografiska New York, USA

Publications with contributions by Aldridge 2015: Sleeples - The Bed in History and Contemporary Art, 21er Haus Belvedere, Vienna 2016: Bling Bling Baby!, Hate Cantz Verlag GmbH, Germany

Collections Aldridge's work is held in the following permanent collections: National Portrait Gallery, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London British Museum