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 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.
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.
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 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
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
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
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 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.
Jump into the megawatt world of Mert and Marcus, the creative tour de force who have styled and shot some of the most powerful brands and personalities of our time, from Miu Miu to Angelina Jolie, Givenchy to Gisele Bündchen. This XXL-sized edition features some 300 pictures from the hyper-glamorous, hyper-glossy repertoire of a creative partnership that has defined and redefined standards for fashion.
Collector's Edition (No. 251–1,250), each numbered and signed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Sebastião Salgado’s haunting black-and-white photographs from the GENESIS project record landscapes and people unchanged in the devastating onslaught of modern society and development. Taken over the course of an epic eight-year expedition, the images are divided into five broad geographic chapters: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia, and Pantanal.
Discover Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artist duo who were born on the same day, met in Paris, fell in love, and became a unique creative partnership that took on Central Park, the German Reichstag, Biscayne Bay, and beyond with their vast and extraordinary environmental interventions.
Kishin Shinoyama’s widely unseen portrait series of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, shot at Ono’s request for the cover of the couple’s 1980 album, Double Fantasy. With exceptional access to the couple’s private apartment, Shinoyama immortalizes this iconic couple at a decisive moment in their personal and creative relationship, and just three months before Lennon’s untimely death.
Collector’s Edition (No. 251–1,980), signed by Yoko Ono and Kishin Shinoyama
Photo duo van Lamsweerde and Matadin destabilize the polished surfaces and easy labels of consumer culture. Their imagery floats between fashion and art, between elite and mainstream, and between registers and references including Gothic, androgyny, comedy, eroticism, and image manipulation. This Collector’s Edition, with an original silk-screened poster, covers two decades of their genre-fluid work.
Limited Collector’s Edition of 1,000 copies, signed by both artists
Creative duo Charles and Ray Eames were one of the most transformative forces in design history: through furniture, photography, architecture, textile design, industrial design, and film, the husband and wife defined a new, multifunctional modernity. Discover all aspects of their illustrious repertoire and its revolutionary impact on middle-class American living.
Your browser seems to have cookies disabled. You'll need to turn cookies on to use taschen.com.
Loading more items
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best possible experience on our website, to serve personalised content or relevant ads. By continuing to use this website, you are giving consent to cookies being used. You can find more information in our Privacy Policy.