Mert & Marcus
Pragmatism PaysMert Alas and Marcus Piggott – a.k.a. Mert & Marcus – are an inventive ingenious duo whose style constantly evolves, making them one of the most fancied photographers to work with in the industry. They don’t have an easily identifiable style, and their range of options is what sets them apart from others.
But how did they come to meet? After an encounter at a party on a pier in Hastings, England in 1993, Piggott who was a photographer’s assistant and Alas who was a fashion model quickly built rapport and went off to do their own thing, and in effect, grew side by side and experienced everything together from the start. For their earliest shoots, they did it all by themselves – styling, hair, makeup and set design, and got their first work published in Dazed & Confused.
Some might say that Mert & Marcus are the Bruce Lee from the school of photography. By not having an unidentifiable pattern, opponents could never predict their next move. As they don’t restrict themselves to one style, and often not even knowing themselves on what’s to come next, the pair’s versatility makes them highly appealing.
Polished, colour-saturated and hyperreal may be some words to describe their aesthetic form. With shoots that boast some of the biggest budgets, most talented collaborators and the hippest influences, along with a small army of digital technicians, re-touchers and art assistants that obsess about the smallest details, their photographs are astonishing. “When I see a celebrity the way the celebrity [always] is, I have no interest,” Alas says. And that’s their approach they take with their production.
With the great divide between commercial and editorial work, fashion photographers do the latter – often unpaid – in order to express themselves artistically, thereby attracting the attention of likeminded, deep-pocketed luxury brands.
Having developed their aesthetic shooting and styling for various forward-thinking magazines (like Dazed & Confused, Love, The Face magazine and i-D), they have acquired regular shoot work for Vogue and W.
“Yes, we want to do art, we want to show the world that we’re not just about a bag and shoe. Yes, we are rebels and we don’t care about money. But it’s an industry.” Says Alas, depicting the pair’s pragmatic attitude that has helped them navigate through the world of commercial fashion.
Mert & Marcus have worked with a variety of high-profile clients, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Givenchy, Versace, Fendi, Kenzo, MAC and Miu Miu. “Obviously, we are here to sell a product […] but the trick is to say that message in an unconventional way,” Alas told Time in 2003.
