These photographs show why Memphis continues to influence design

Forty years after its inception, Memphis continues to inspire new visual concepts. This is perfectly illustrated by a project that tasks three photographers with reinterpreting some of the brand’s most iconic furniture pieces, now part of the Italian Radical Design group. The result is not a nostalgic celebration, but rather confirmation that the radical design of Ettore Sottsass and his collaborators still retains an extraordinary ability to surprise. Founded in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass—with the involvement of figures such as Michele De Lucchi, Aldo Cibic, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanini, Martine Bedin, and Nathalie Du Pasquier, and under the artistic direction of Barbara Radice—Memphis remains an indispensable point of reference, not only for product and interior design, but also for fashion, art, and photography.

In open defiance of rationalist rigor, it staked everything on color, decoration, and pattern. This is the foundation of unforgettable products that continue to populate contemporary spaces and now take center stage in a unique photographic experiment.

The project involved three photographers—Mattia Balsamini, Alecio Ferrari (in collaboration with set designer Danila Saulino), and Louis De Belle—tasked with reinterpreting some of the most iconic pieces from the Memphis catalog, now part of the Italian Radical Design group. The result confirms how these objects, with their strong visual identity, are still capable of inspiring original, contemporary scenarios.

Mattia Balsamini strips the Riviera chair by De Lucchi of its true scale: by removing it from any recognizable context, he celebrates its structure through the arches of its legs, which in his images expand to become bridges. Isolating the object in an absolute void accentuates its graphic power and clarifies the dialogue between its elements, which embrace their contrasts with a certain naturalness: two-dimensional and three-dimensional, curved and straight, matte and glossy, blue and yellow.

Alecio Ferrari and Danila Saulino embrace the spirit of Sottsass by photographing the zoomorphic Tahiti lamp as if it were a living creature: its components become the precious plumage of an exotic bird, captured in shots reminiscent of a nature documentary. Similarly, the Super lamp—to which Martine Bedin famously added wheels—is portrayed in the midst of an unstoppable race. The radical ideas of Memphis are not reduced to 'provocations' or abstract references, but remain living objects, capable of inhabiting the present exactly as their creators had imagined.

Louis De Belle takes a different approach, depicting the Hyatt side table—which Sottsass originally designed for his own home—as a housemate, a witness and accomplice to everyday domestic life. The object adapts to the most diverse needs of its inhabitants (the cat included), elevating its function and allowing every element to find its place among the columns of this small domestic 'temple'.