Ivo Von Renner

Villa Jako

For his latest series, Ivo von Renner chose a special location in Hamburg’s Blankenese quarter: The legendary Villa Jako. The villa was bought by Karl Lagerfeld in the 90s and its interior design certainly reflects the renowned fashion designer’s exquisite taste. His life of luxury may be what gave the villa its notoriety, but what truly makes this location special is the sentimentality that Lagerfeld associated with it. Afterall, he named the villa after his partner Jacques de Bascher, who died at an early age. Now, Ivo von Renner is giving the villa a reawakening by capturing its unparalleled atmosphere with elegance and finesse. Once again, the Villa Jako is a member of high society.

Double Polaroids

It was a summer day in 1975 when the German artist Ivo von Renner photographed his girlfriend on a riverbank in Russia. Using a borrowed Polaroid SX70, he shot his model from different angles and carefully pasted two photographs together. And like that, his characteristic double polaroid concept was born. The first photograph captures the eye, then the gaze naturally wanders to the second. The artist continued to experiment with this form of representation, and in the following years he created extraordinary nude photography. His works embody the duality of a moment. One visual world opens the door to another, and with every glance a new detail is revealed.

These complex image compositions, combined and merged with intention, challenge and provoke the viewer. Reality is blurred by the soft graininess and gentle contrasts, which inevitably creates space for the viewer to interpret a backstory. A door to fantasy and desire is opened. “There should always be space to dream upon,” Renner once said about his artworks. His work doesn’t strive to recreate a precise image of the female body, but rather to capture the unadulterated essence of a moment. “My homage to a woman becomes poetry, it’s beyond physical desire,” he said about his creative process. Even famous artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol appreciated the authenticity and instantaneousness of Polaroid photography. Ivo von Renner reinterpreted the instant image and created a new art form with his double polaroids. His iconic works are now available at LUMAS in a special cut-out format that was designed to reproduce the analog photograph’s original square format and arrangement as faithfully as possible. These artworks are a tribute to the Polaroid. Each photo is unique and reveals an unaltered moment captured for eternity.

Ivo von Renner was born in Hamburg in 1949. He studied Graphic Design and was a photographer for publications including Stern magazine and Die Zeit newspaper. Von Renner established an international reputation as a commercial photographer with over 250 award-winning ad campaigns to his name. His works can be seen in museums and galleries around the world. Von Renner has taught master classes at the Global Leica Akademie since 2018. He lives and works in Hamburg.