Speaking a few days after his last issue as editor-in-chief of British Vogue hit the shelves, Edward Enninful said: “It ended the way I wanted it to end.” The breakup cover is a tribute to Enninful’s history and her accomplishments with the magazine, which features 40 iconic women she’s worked with over the years, from Victoria Beckham to Oprah Winfrey, Dua Lipa and Anok Yai. But now his eyes are fixed on the future. His next venture is an unexpected departure from fashion and London – his take on Robert Mapplethorpe at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris.
Enninful refuses to discuss a rumored dispute with Vogue chief Anna Wintour – “I don’t comment on gossip, I never have” – but she has set a number of precedents in her six-and-a-half years at the magazine, including the first transgender version of British Vogue. cover star Paris Lees and Judi Dench, who became the oldest at 85 in June 2020. He was also behind the magazine’s first braille and audio editions.
Mapplethorpe questioned portraiture. What’s nice? Who is allowed in?
“Inclusion and diversity weren’t just words to me when I started,” she says. “I believe in actions. I’m very happy with what we did and I’m really happy to leave on such a good note. I feel like the industry is changing and I hope it continues to change. “I am proud to be able to help pave the way for this new perspective for people.”
Speaking via Zoom from her home in London, Enninful seems an ideal match for Mapplethorpe, a photographer and agent provocateur with a meticulous eye that challenges conventional ideas of beauty. “He questioned the idea of what a portrait is,” says Enninful. “What’s the beauty? Who’s allowed in? I think I did the same; we both questioned the status quo in our industries.”
Enninful’s fashion career began soon after her family arrived in the UK from Ghana. She became a model after being discovered by legendary British stylist Simon Foxton on the London Underground at the age of 16. Enninful became the youngest fashion director at an international publication when she was appointed to the position at i-D at the age of 18. After spending twenty years there, she worked for Italian and American Vogue, as well as W.. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for her services to diversity in the fashion industry.
It was Foxton who first introduced the young Enninful to The Black Book, Mapplethorpe’s explosive collection of 96 erotic photographs of black men. “At the time, I was a bald-headed, dark-skinned model,” she says. “I could see myself in Ken Moody.” Moody, a fitness instructor, is often considered Mapplethorpe’s muse. “I loved the way Maplethorpe used light. It was so powerful that you wanted to touch the picture. There was a sense that there was something new and incredible about his work.”
Mapplethorpe’s treatment of the black male body has been criticized as exploitative and fetishistic. Moody later wrote that he had a strained relationship with the photographer, who he claimed once called him “Oreo” because his mannerisms were not “ghetto”. “Throughout history, black men have been portrayed in many ways,” says Enninful. We are accustomed to creating some of the most iconic images. We need to continue the conversation about objectification. But we have to deal with the images that define men And women – this cannot be isolated to just black men.”
Enninful’s approach to the medium is more collaborative. “I was a model,” she says, “so I understand being on set and not having a say when you’re in service of the image and the shot. I was very lucky to have people like Simon Foxton. [photographer] Nick Knight is the one who encouraged me to speak up. Modeling is not easy; You’re always being told to shut up, your opinion is less important. So when I work with Kate or Naomi, we work on stories together, we develop characters; “That’s something I really learned from those early days.”
Mapplethorpe became something of a talisman for Enninful as he entered the London fashion scene in full swing in the 1980s; He kept up the pace over the next decade, long after Mapplethorpe died of AIDS-related complications in 1989 at the age of 42. All of us kids who came together in the 1990s (some of whom are now the world’s leading fashion photographers) were all very influenced by Mapplethorpe. We were so inspired by the honesty in his photographs.”
Enninful’s take on Mapplethorpe is elegant, emotional, and quietly disturbing; this clearly reveals their shared sensitivity and deep concern about being seen. Enninful scanned more than 2,000 images in the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation archive and selected just 46. “I approached this as images of his work that resonated with me,” he says. “It was very instinctive.” After working with printed material for four decades, Enninful approached the exhibition like an editor, matching the images like a double-page mockery.
As you might expect, Enninful seems most influenced by iconic images: old-school glamor and high-society glamor with a dash of smarts. Writer Fran Lebowitz, cigarette in hand, next to the ethereal Isabella Rossellini, a portrait from 1988. The photo of Susan Sarandon holding her daughter Eva Amurri is reminiscent of the photo of Enninful’s March 2022 Vogue cover featuring Naomi Campbell with her baby daughter. A full-body shot of half-naked teenager Arnold Schwarzenegger flexing his famous muscles appears next to female bodybuilder Lisa Lyon; Photographed from behind, she’s wearing a gorgeous dress, her body looking as stunning and sculpted as Schwarzenegger’s. The well-known portrait, shot in profile, of Ken Moody and another frequent subject named Robert Sherman reminded Enninful of herself and her husband, fashion video director Alex Maxwell.
The pairings reflect Mapplethorpe’s fascination with duality and blurred duality; It inverts expectations regarding gender, high forehead and low forehead, beautiful and ugly, classical and subcultural. While Mapplethorpe’s dogged perfectionism shifts towards coldness and seriousness, Enninful’s juxtapositions reveal the humor and compassion that are also present in his work. One of the pairings brings alongside Charles Bowman’s elegant 1982 portrait of two men, one black, one white, holding each other, Embrace, a gorgeous and sultry close-up from 1980 that showcases Bowman’s shiny, massive torso. Both have something to say about strength and masculinity, but the contrast couldn’t be starker: sensual, muscular strength versus softness and vulnerability. It’s a reminder of how many sides Mapplethorpe had. “He was a master,” says Enninful. “But I think he was overshadowed, too. I wanted to show the breadth of his work.”
The show also hints at stories yet untold in Mapplethorpe’s work. Next to the stark, minimalist purity of Moody and Sherman’s portrait is a mysterious figure named Aira, dressed in feathers, fur, a veil, and fake nails. “He’s so brave!” Enninful exclaims with delight. However, little is known about Aira other than her name. “I’m obsessed with it! I literally haven’t stopped searching; I ask my friends who were in New York at the time. When I found out who he was, I was fascinated.
At the end of the exhibition are two surprising, stand-alone portraits taken in 1976: a smiling Princess Margaret in a swimsuit on the beach, and a listless David Hockney reclining mid-yawn. The improvisational looseness, lightness and apparent lack of choreography reveal a different side of Mapplethorpe. “It was like he was there and said, ‘Let me get my camera!’ “It’s like he said.” These shots are a way for Enninful to put its British stamp on the show. “They are so iconic and so British that it was important for me, as a British editor and person, to show that she shines a light on our aristocrats!”
No less striking is Enninful’s decision to omit Mapplethorpe’s more extreme sexual images, such as photographs taken at the Mineshaft BDSM club in the 1970s and those published in the controversial X Portfolio. “It was impossible to include everything,” she says. “I had to act on my instincts.” Does this mean he doesn’t like harsher images? Enninful becomes subtle again. “I appreciate his work. He’s a great artist. However, these were the images that caught my eye in this exhibition, which was my first curatorial work.”
Mapplethorpe was relentless in his search for the “perfect moment”. Is this another trait that Enninful is identified with? “Everyone would tell you that I would literally change the images until the magazine came out for print. This was never done. It’s never good enough. In my opinion, it should always be the best it can be. “It gets pretty scary sometimes.”
Enninful doesn’t seem terrified by this venture into the art world; perhaps because the mission of changing the way we see each other is not yet complete. “You can’t do something once and say you’re done and move on,” he says. “You have to stick to a point of view. You’ve got to keep at it.” It’s this quality he clearly admires in Mapplethorpe, who shares a similar spirit in his struggle to redefine beauty.
“Everyone should see it,” he says. “I’ve always felt that. Everyone should be represented regardless of race, religion, sexuality, or socioeconomic background. If you can see it, you can be it.”
• Robert Mapplethorpe is at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, from 2 March to 6 April.