Each decade has its own visual language, but few, like the 1990s, have made such a clean break with the era that preceded them. After the sculptural opulence and almost theatrical staging of the 1980s, fashion took a turn towards a form of relaxed realism, a quest for authenticity where the garment finally seemed to fade into the background, giving way to the woman who wore it.

Pamela Hanson was not only a witness to this pivotal decade, but also one of its most subtle visual architects. The exhibition dedicated to her by the Staley-Wise Gallery, "In the 90s," goes beyond a retrospective: it is an immersion into the intimacy of a decade that, according to the artist, "changed everything."

Pamela Hanson's vision is first and foremost about complicity. Unlike the then-dominant, often masculine, aesthetic that placed the model on a distant pedestal, Hanson built her work on intimacy. Arriving in Paris in the 1980s, she shared the daily lives of models, their apartments, their doubts, and their ambitions. This immersion allowed her to develop a photographic style based on exchange, not posing. Her images don't capture models, but young women living: a burst of laughter, a cigarette held with studied nonchalance, a moment of reverie in front of a mirror… She was one of the few women to break into this industry at the time, and it shows. Her lens doesn't objectify: it humanizes.

What is striking about this selection of images, some of which have never been shown or published, is their narrative power. Each photograph is a short film in itself. We see Trish Goff in an evening gown ordering from a hot dog stand in Los Angeles, creating a visual clash between ultra-glamorous glamour and the most mundane everyday life. We catch a glimpse of a young, playful Kate Moss glancing at us over a curtain. These "joyful snapshots" are not happy accidents, but the result of a method: creating an environment of trust where naturalness can blossom. While assisting Arthur Elgort, Hanson undoubtedly honed this ability to capture movement and spontaneity.

His work on the Supermodels is particularly eloquent. At a time when Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Kate Moss were becoming almost divine icons, Hanson photographed them with disarming simplicity. She wasn't looking for the icy perfection of magazine covers, but rather the vulnerability, the personality, the humanity behind the myth. Her portraits are a silent conversation, a suspended moment of truth where clothing is merely an attribute of the subject. The campaigns she shot for giants like Ralph Lauren and Estée Lauder bear this same imprint: a living, embodied elegance, never static.

While contemporary fashion draws with insatiable nostalgia from the repertoire of the 1990s, this exhibition reminds us that this style was less about clothes than about attitude. It was the era of effortless chic, of a free spirit that resonates with particular acuity today, at a time when perfect, algorithmic images saturate our daily lives. The work of Pamela Hanson, one of whose pieces is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, appears as an antidote. It speaks to us of friendship, joy, and a certain carefree spirit that seems to have vanished from our era. Accompanied by the publication of a monograph by Rizzoli, the exhibition is not merely a look back, but an affirmation of the enduring relevance of intimate photography. Photography that doesn't dictate, but shares.

"In the 90s"
Staley-Wise Gallery
100 Crosby Street, Suite 305, New York (USA)
Until November 8, 2025

https://www.staleywise.com