Partners in Life and Art

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we’ve gathered eight of our all-time favorite creative couples. Check out their inspiring stories of life, love, and art.

Mert and Marcus

Mert Alas, born in Turkey, and Marcus Piggott, born in Wales, met in 1994 at a party on a pier in Hastings, England. Piggott asked Alas for a light and the pair got talking. Three years later, the duo now known as Mert and Marcus had moved into a derelict loft in East London, converted it into a studio, and had their first collaborative work published on the cover of Dazed & Confused. These days, Mert and Marcus shape the global image of such renowned brands as Giorgio Armani, Miu Miu, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, and Lancôme, as well as public figures including Lady Gaga, Madonna, Gisele Bündchen, Björk, Angelina Jolie, and Rihanna.

June and Helmut Newton

Jewish German emigré Helmut Newton and Australian actress June Browne first met in Melbourne, where Helmut had set up a photography studio and June hoped to make some extra money as a model. “With her there was another dimension,” recalled Helmut. The couple went on to lead a life at the forefront of photography and fashion, with June producing her own photographic work under the pseudonym Alice Springs.

Lélia and Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado and Lélia Deluiz Wanick met and married in Brazil in 1967. All Salgado books, including the spectacular Genesis, were conceived and created by Lélia, who studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Since the 1990s, Lélia and Sebastião have also worked together on Instituto Terra, a reforestation program in the Rio Doce valley Brazil and TASCHEN’s environmental partner.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on exactly the same day thousands of miles apart, Christo in Gabrovo, Bulgaria and Jeanne-Claude in Casablanca, Morocco. The pair met in Paris in the late 1950s and fell in love while making art together. Their extraordinary environmental projects include Wrapped Reichstag and Floating Piers.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon

During their 11-year marriage, John Lennon and Yoko Ono collaborated on multiple creative projects, including the 1980 album ‘Double Fantasy’, as well as political and anti-war activism. “He was a very strong and beautiful and protective force for me,” says Ono. “It was such a waste that he had to go when he was 40.”

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg

When Jane Birkin first met Serge Gainsbourg on a film set in 1969, she found him rude—even, according to her brother, “horrible.” Yet the free-spirited English girl and the sardonic chain-smoking poet-musician, 18 years her senior, soon became inseparable. Fans around the world shared in their passion through steamy songs, an entire concept album, and endless enraptured press coverage. Jane’s English-tinged French and timid innocence were the perfect foil to Serge’s dark, audacious persona and, despite their eventual split in 1980, the couple remain one of the most iconic partnerships of recent decades.

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

Working together since 1986, Dutch duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin were among the first to manipulate their images, creating a radical new fusion of digital photography and fashion. The result is a body of work that has destabilized the polished surfaces and easy labels of consumer culture. Floating between the elite and the mainstream, the surreal and the erotic, Inez and Vinoodh’s genre-defying visual universe has placed the husband and wife team among the ranks of the most powerful image-makers of our time.

Ray and Charles Eames

Ray and Charles Eames Husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, married in 1941, and became pioneers of modern architecture and design. Their work includes the iconic Eames Lounge Chair and Eames House, as well as industrial and graphic design, fine art, and film.