Collectors 01
Darnell Moore & Yashua Simmons
Los Angeles

Writer and activist Darnell Moore and his partner, fashion editor and stylist Yashua Simmons, are an established presence on the Los Angeles art scene. The couple have a particular interest in photography that stems, in part, from Simmons’ work in magazines.

Indeed, one of the first pieces that they brought home was an image that Simmons had worked on with photographer and filmmaker Micaiah Carter. Other acquisitions include pieces by the late Herb Ritts, Tyler Mitchell (best known for his cover image of Beyoncé for a 2018 issue of Vogue) and Illinois-based portrait photographer Bryce Batts.

The couple source these works through people they meet, the city’s creative community or gallerists who understand their tastes. “It has been a beautiful experience to develop an eye and a practice together as two black queer men,” says Moore.

Though identity isn’t always the driving force when it comes to the pieces that the couple acquire, it’s important to them that their collection represents black life and culture, and combines their individual tastes. “We’re at a point now where I know what [Simmons] would be moved by,” says Moore.

Simmons agrees that finding art relies on an instant response. “It’s a spirit,” he says. “Nothing is grey or in the middle. They’re all just kind of emotional.”

---

Collectors 02
Isabelle von Ribbentrop
London

It’s no surprise that Isabelle von Ribbentrop has an impressive photography collection. She is executive director of Prix Pictet, which awards a biannual prize of chf100,000 (€106,000) to a photographer focusing on themes of sustainability and the environment.

Von Ribbentrop’s lifelong relationship with photography began when she helped her grandmother, a professional photographer, in the darkroom. When she later bought her first photograph with her husband, it was a large Wolfgang Tillmans, which hangs above the sofa in their west London living room.

Her fascination with the medium lies in the fact that it’s hard to be a passive observer of a photo. “I find photography so real,” she says. “You could be in this photograph or you could be the photographer.” And when it comes to the work she acquires, be it by Jeremy Deller, Jenny Holzer or Alicja Kwade, Von Ribbentrop buys what she loves. 

To those who want to start collecting, her advice is to learn about what you like, buy photography books, visit galleries when travelling and consider what you would really like to have hanging at home, rather than its prospective value. “You need to love a piece and it doesn’t matter if it’s someone well known or not,” she says. “It’s much more interesting to buy someone who isn’t hanging in every museum.”

---

Collectors 03
Rafaël Biosse Duplan
Paris & London

For Rafaël Biosse Duplan, whose mother worked as a curator at the Louvre during his childhood in Paris, the question was never whether to hang art on the wall, but rather what. In 2005 he bought his first photograph – by German filmmaker Wim Wenders – and became hooked. “There was this extraordinary medium that produced pieces like nothing I had seen before, in its diversity, formats and techniques,” he says.

One of the merits of collecting photography, he says, is that it is a “democratic medium”, likening it to literature. “You can have a version of a manuscript that also exists in paperback. It doesn’t take anything away from your collection.”

Biosse Duplan divides his collection between his homes in London and Paris, though moving works between them has become harder since Brexit. “These days there are two parts of the collection, as opposed to one full collection,” he says. What unites the two is that each photograph displayed can’t immediately be understood. “It’s not about decorating the house,” he says. “It’s about showing works that challenge and excite you, or sometimes calm you down or create strong emotions.”