COLOGNE.- The Kaune Gallery is presenting original works by American photographer Mark Arbeit, born in Chicago in 1953, who now lives and works in Paris.

This retrospective, featuring works from 1979 to 2019, reflects the breadth of his oeuvre and the multifaceted application of his photographic practice:

Alongside the well-known Les Atéliers de Paris photographs and large-scale photograms, the exhibition includes selections from his fashion photography and celebrity portraits of Charlotte Rampling, Matt Damon, and Peter Beard, complemented by private photographs by Helmut Newton. A rare Polaroid collage is presented for the first time, made available by the artist as a limited Fine Art Print edition at the request of the gallery.

His long-standing friendship and collaboration with Helmut Newton, as well as his early assistance in Irving Penn’s New York studio, had a lasting influence on the development of his photographic language.

In 1991, Arbeit moved to Paris, where alongside his commercial successes in fashion photography, he began to explore the artistic dimensions of the medium. This resulted, among other works, in the series Les Atéliers de Paris, in which female nudes are photographed in the typical north-facing studio rooms of Parisian artists. With precision and quiet restraint, his compositions integrate the lived-in interiors—marked by artworks both finished and in progress—with the graceful forms of his models. The nude is neither the center, nor an accessory; it nestles into its surroundings as if it had always been there, creating a holistic image in which the room itself is elevated from frame to landscape.

The photograms on display were created in Brussels in the 2010s—without any camera. They are life-size direct exposures of photographic paper and thus unique works.

Like Helmut Newton, Arbeit strictly separates his artistic projects from commercial assignments. In addition to his personal work, he has contributed to French Vogue, People Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel, Marie Claire, among others, with magazines early recognizing his ability to tell almost cinematic stories alongside the presentation of fashion.

Mark Arbeit is a member of the artist group “Three Boys from Pasadena”, whose last exhibition in Germany was held at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. Kaune Contemporary previously presented the solo show of this group at Art Cologne 2012.

His works are part of numerous international collections and have been featured in museum exhibitions.