No noise. No rebellion. No staging. With WOLVES, Winter Vandenbrink turns his lens towards the quiet moments of a generation that is constantly together, yet often appears profoundly alone. His photographs portray teenagers on the streets, squares and stairways of Paris, Amsterdam, Milan and Venice – sleeping, waiting, observing or absorbed in their smartphones. Out of these seemingly incidental encounters emerges a compelling portrait of youth, belonging and togetherness.

Following VANDALS and TOBY, WOLVES is the third publication by the Dutch-born, Paris-based photographer to be released by IDEA. Unlike his fashion and commercial commissions, this body of work is entirely unscripted. Moving through groups rather than directing them, Vandenbrink observes gestures, glances and body language, capturing those fleeting moments between closeness and distance in which a sense of belonging quietly reveals itself.

“I did have to think about whether the subjects of the photos should see me, though. In the beginning I shot undetected from very far away, but that started to feel a bit dishonest. So I moved in closer and closer. Now I like to stand in the middle of the action, or at least in a spot where the young people can see me and approach me if they want.”

The book's conceptual framework is provided by Field Notes, an essay by Eliot Haworth. His observations of wolf behaviour remain deliberately ambiguous, inviting readers to interpret them as descriptions of both animals and adolescent social groups. “As a rule, they tend to wear large shaggy coats in the winter, which lighten up in the summer months. Even in the very coldest or hottest weather, they are happiest when mingling outside. Their hairstyles vary. Some wear it straight, or in tufts, or crests, or short and with an elastic springiness. Some hair is exceptionally long and runs down past the shoulders. It can be black or blonde, or brown or red or orange or silver. Sometimes it’s a fetching two-tone, with the tips tinted a darker colour.”

As a physical object, WOLVES goes far beyond the conventions of the photobook. Designed by Dutch graphic designer Linda van Deursen, it combines multiple paper stocks, untrimmed sewn-in sections and a book block mounted inside a folded poster. IDEA describes it as the publisher's most ambitious book production to date – so complex that one Italian printer initially declared it “impossibile.” The book was printed and bound by Wilco Art Books in the Netherlands.

WOLVES
Winter Vandenbrink
Design: Linda van Deursen
Text: Eliot Haworth
33 × 24 cm, 168 pages 
ideanow.online

 
16.07.2026 show complete article

An oversized face. Bright red lipstick. Staring straight into the camera. The key visual for BOZAR's exhibition 'Picture Perfect. Beauty through a Contemporary Lens' is taken from Pipilotti Rist's iconic video work Be Nice To Me (Flatten 04) (2000), perfectly encapsulating the exhibition's central premise: beauty is not a constant. It is a construct, a projection, and an instrument of power.

Bringing together 65 international artists from different generations and cultural backgrounds, BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels explores how photography and moving images have shaped - and continue to shape - our understanding of beauty. Curated by Christel Tsilibaris, the exhibition presents photographs and video works spanning the 1960s to the present day, examining how lens-based media have produced, reinforced and ultimately deconstructed dominant Western beauty ideals.

Rather than offering a purely critical survey, 'Picture Perfect' invites visitors to rethink beauty as an expression of diversity, individuality and humanity. Here, beauty is no longer presented as a fixed ideal but as an open space embracing multiple perspectives and identities.

At the heart of the exhibition lies not only the subject of beauty itself, but also the photographic image. Few media have influenced beauty standards as profoundly as photography. Yet it is precisely this medium that artists have employed for decades to expose, challenge and redefine stereotypical gender roles, body ideals and social norms.

The exhibition unfolds through two thematic chapters, 'Deconstruction' and 'Recuperation'. While the first dismantles inherited beauty standards, the second demonstrates how artists reclaim the concept of beauty as a vehicle for self-determination, diversity and empowerment.

Featured artists include Valérie Belin, Kwame Brathwaite, Juno Calypso, Rineke Dijkstra, Sylvie Fleury, Ana Mendieta, Zanele Muholi, ORLAN, Frida Orupabo, Pipilotti Rist, Cindy Sherman, Marianna Simnett, Sin Wai Kin, Hank Willis Thomas and Garry Winogrand, alongside many other internationally acclaimed practitioners whose works reveal the remarkable breadth of contemporary lens-based image-making.

The exhibition has already received enthusiastic international acclaim. The New York Times describes Picture Perfect as an exhibition that revisits contemporary definitions of physical beauty through photographs and videos spanning more than six decades. Belgian newspaper De Standaard sums it up succinctly as "All killer, no filler," praising its compelling examination of more than fifty years of Western beauty ideals.

For curator Christel Tsilibaris, the exhibition aims to broaden our understanding of beauty. Beauty, she argues, should never be seen solely as an ideal or a norm - it has the power both to liberate and to constrain. It is precisely this duality that 'Picture Perfect. Beauty through a Contemporary Lens' explores with remarkable clarity and visual force.




Find out more about the exhibition directly at BOZAR.

 
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Fire Island is far more than a beach just outside New York City. For almost a century, the narrow barrier island has served as a sanctuary, a place of longing and a creative universe for generations of artists, photographers and queer creatives from around the world. With 'Fire Island Art: 100 Years', a comprehensive new volume now documents the visual history of this extraordinary place.

Edited by John Dempsey, the book traces Fire Island's artistic legacy from the 1930s to the present day, bringing together iconic works alongside rarely seen archival material. Featured artists include Richard Avedon, Paul Cadmus, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol, while also shining a light on lesser-known historical figures and a new generation of contemporary artists such as TM Davy, Nicole Eisenman, Lyle Ashton Harris, Doron Langberg and Salman Toor, whose work has helped shape Fire Island's artistic renaissance over the past fifteen years.

Spanning more than 300 pages, 'Fire Island Art: 100 Years' combines photographs, artworks and historical documents with essays by leading writers and interviews with Lola Flash, Pamela Sneed and Wolfgang Tillmans. The publication also includes historical texts such as Frank O'Hara's poem A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island and excerpts from Andy Warhol's legendary Diaries.

The Berlin launch takes place on 24 July 2026 at 6:30 pm at BETWEEN BRIDGES Ursuppe. Editor John Dempsey and artist AA Bronson will discuss Fire Island as a place of artistic production, cultural history and queer identity. Timed to coincide with Berlin's Christopher Street Day weekend, the event also marks the closing weekend of the current Jochen Klein exhibition, which will remain open throughout the evening.

Published by The Monacelli Press (304 pages, hardcover), 'Fire Island Art: 100 Years' is set to become an essential reference on one of the most influential places in the history of queer art and photography.

Between Bridges Ursuppe
Adalbertstraße 43, 10179 Berlin
Entrance via Adalbertstraße 44

 
16.07.2026 show complete article