Malkovich at Fondazione Stelline

“The idea that others saw in me one that was not the I whom I knew, one whom they alone could know, as they looked at me from without, with eyes that were not my own, eyes that conferred upon me an aspect destined to remain always foreign to me, although it was one that was in me, one that was my own to them (a “mine,” that is to say, that was not for me!) – a life into which, although it was my own, I had no power to penetrate – this idea gave me no rest.” The concept for the Fondazione Stelline exhibition in Milan entitled “Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich” seems to have been inspired precisely by Luigi Pirandello’s One, No One and One Hundred Thousand. On until 6 February 2022, produced and organised by Skira, this exhibition brings to the public 61 pictures paying homage to great masters of photography such as Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and many others, in which famous American actor and director John Malkovich interprets the subjects of their famous photos: Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dalí, Mick Jagger, Muhammad Ali, Meryl Streep, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and many others.

In every picture Miller recreates with surprising skill all the details of the original photos, from the elements of the set, the lighting, to the black and white and colour nuances, while celebrating Malkovich’s chameleon-like acting talent. “I did not want to make a parody,” adds Miller, “paying homage to those photographers and photographs that have changed my point of view on photography is a serious matter for me. These are pictures that have inspired me, making me become the photographer I am today.”