Snaps is Ellen von Unwerth’s first monograph, published by Twin Palms Publishers in October 1994. Before working behind the camera, von Unwerth spent ten years in front of it; her photographs for the GUESS jeans campaign became an important part of her transition into photography. That movement between being photographed and making photographs provides a context for approaching this collection of fashion images, portraits and nudes.

The book includes photographs of Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Isabella Rossellini and Madonna. These are subjects associated with public images, yet a book brings individual photographs into a setting different from a single advertising campaign or magazine appearance. A reader can consider the encounter between the photographer and the person pictured, while also attending to the conventions through which glamour becomes recognizable. The project belongs to the visual world of the 1990s without needing every photograph to summarize that period.

The hardcover contains 124 pages and 101 sheet-fed gravure plates, in a ten-by-fourteen-inch format. These specifications give the work a substantial physical presentation and a sequence that can be revisited. The printing method is part of the book’s material form, while the varied subjects give a reader different points of entry into von Unwerth’s photographic practice. The first-monograph context places this volume at an early stage in the presentation of her work through books.

For readers interested in fashion photography, Snaps raises questions about the relationship between performance and the photographic encounter. The person before the camera has an appearance and a public role, but neither fully determines what a picture will become. Reading across a collection allows attention to move between a familiar face, the construction of glamour and the photographer’s choices, rather than stopping at recognition alone.