Miles Aldridge

Miles Aldrige is a British fashion photographer. His photography is famous for its surrealist aesthetic and a specific use of colour.

He was born in London in 1964. His father Alan was a celebrated Art director, best known for his groundbreaking book covers for Penguin and his trippy album artwork for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Miles grew up in the company of the cream of the British art and music scenes in the 1960s. At the age of 12, his father moved to Los Angeles where he formed a new family. Miles stayed in London with his mother Rita, a housewife, and his sister Saffron Aldridge, on who he first began to practicing photography. He studied Illustration at the Central St Martins to follow his father's steps, afterwards briefly directed pop videos before moving into photography by chance. He sent some photos of an aspiring model girlfriend to an agency and fell into fashion when British Vogue called him as well as her. By then he'd hung out on shoots with his sister and traveled to New York in the mid-nineties where he started working almost immediately.

Initially Aldridge shooted covers of the American monthly fashion magazine W, then he worked for Numéro, Teen Vogue, Vogue Nippon, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The New Yorker, The Face, Paradis and Harper's Bazaar. For many years he has been an important contributor for Vogue Italia, building a solid friendship with Franca Sozzani.

Aldridge worked as an advertising photographer for Longchamp, MAC Cosmetics, Sergio Rossi, Carolina Herrera, Lavazza and Mercedes E-Class, among the others. He shooted for noted fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent e Paul Smith.

And now there’s burgeoning interest from the art world too. His work is currently on show in the Weird Beauty group exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York. His solo how “ Doll Face” was recently exhibited at Hamiltons Gallery in London and he will show at Stephen Kasher in NYC in May.

Steidl has published his book “Pictures for Photographs” in April 2009.

Given this success, and the fantastical nature of his work, it’s a surprise to find out that the 43-year-old Londoner is most inspired by real life.

Miles was also chosen to be the photographer to create the images for the prestigious 2010 Lavazza calendar.

Miles lives in London with his wife the celebrated model Kristen McMenemy and his four children.