Sandro Miller: Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters

At the age of 16, after having seen a series of portraiture by Irving Penn in a photographic magazine, Sandro Miller was so inspired that he has since devoted his life to creating expressive images. For over thirty years Miller has been photographing people and has launched numerous award-winning commercial campaigns, thus allowing him the means to pursue his personal projects. In 2001, Miller was invited by the Cuban government to photograph the country’s athletes. This was the first US/Cuban collaborative project since the trade embargo had been imposed in 1960.

Currently running at Chicago’s Catherine Edelman Gallery, the exhibit “Sandro Miller: Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to photographic masters”, is a remarkable exhibition conceived with his long time friend, actor John Malkovich, in honoring the men and women whose photographs helped shape Miller’s career.

In each image, Miller recreated the original iconic photograph – with Malkovich posed and dressed almost exactly as the subjects were – such as Irving Penn’s portrait of Pablo Picasso, Bert Stern’s Marilyn Monroe, Philippe Halsman’s Salvador Dali, Herb Ritt’s Jack Nicholson and Albert Watson’s Alfred Hitchcock, among many others. The result is a palpable labor of love involving a team of seamstresses, stylists, make-up artists, lighting specialists and researchers, all working under the immaculate vision of Miller toward bringing this project to perfection. While this is a tribute and respect paid by Miller to all the old masters, it is also an appreciation of Malkovich’s chameleon-like proclivity and the ease in which he morphs into any character. Most interestingly perhaps, it also serves as a reminder of how entrenched these images of celebrities and famous icons have become in our collective memory through the vision of the old masters.

According to Miller in a video interview, the homage will culminate in a book with an additional ten more portraits, while a film of Malkovich and his involvement with the project is also in the making.