When, in 2023, Carolina Herrera commissioned Munich-based conceptual photographer Elizaveta Porodina to photograph its Colormania monograph, the fashion and art worlds snapped to attention. Her highly stylized method of image-making, which blends saturated color and a deft eye for movement within a world of painterly surrealism, has made her a sought-after talent. The commission, spearheaded by Carolina Herrera creative director Wes Gordon, saw Porodina capture some of the most photographed artists of our time—including New York City Ballet artistic director Wendy Whelan—in novel fashion.
This season, she turns her lens on to the talent at the heart of New York City Ballet, as the company’s Art Series collaborator. The initiative sees the debut of two dozen of Porodina’s photos of the company’s dancers and a short film created during fall of 2023. The series, which will be on view from Jan. 21 at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, follows a spirit of progressiveness that has flourished within the company and across mediums of artistic expression since Whelan and Jonathan Stafford assumed its creative leadership nearly five years ago.
Since then, its winter season has become a de facto platform for the company to embrace experimentation, growth, and evolution as it celebrates its 76th season. Past winters have seen the likes of Alexei Ratmansky’s devastating ode to the victims of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with the evolution of prima ballerina Tiler Peck into a skilled choreographer, and a proverbial passing of the baton as resident choreographer Justin Peck debuted the company’s first new non-narrative evening-length production in 55 years. And with Porodina as the latest in a line of creative collaborators including Jeffrey Gibson, Studio Drift, and David Michalek, one thing’s for certain: this is not your grandparents’ night at the ballet.
