PATAPHYSICS
(design/edited Leo Edelstein and Yanni Florence, associate editor Judith Elliston)
ON PETER LINDBERGH
from the Pirate issue

Rudi Ketz

I feel tentative speaking on such subjects—I’ve always felt it to be somewhat important to resist what one loves—but Peter has outdone himself this time. A few words then. These photographs, originally taken for a Ruffo promotion, present the strangely beautiful couple, supermodel, Eva Herzigova, and Bon Jovi drummer, Tico Torres. They have subsequently gone their separate ways, but the photographs remain, and what a wonderful tribute. Even after death, outstanding or notorious people remain with us, seeing through our eyes, are ‘reborn’ if you will. Let me propose that Peter’s genius here has been to capture the ghosts of the Führer and Eva Braun. The tragic couple in more contemporary costume. It is Tico’s size that immediately jumps out at us, his build identical to the Führer’s. We should note that Tico has begun to make a name for himself as a painter—there’s a child-like honesty in his animal canvases. He is also clearly almost psychotic in his obsession with Eva, clearly. We empathize with the narrator’s indecision perhaps. Throughout these photographs Eva is notifying us of something—we can certainly feel Ms Braun’s alluring presence in Eva. There’s a sense of sadness, of what could have been, in all her poses. Eva has now left Tico, thus saving herself from a scene she knew all too well. We must thank this age for giving us, if nothing else, survivors. And we should praise the gods that Peter Lindbergh is one of them.