Formento + Formento

Formento & Formento known for their romantic and sensually staged photography that blur the lines of fiction and reality, clarity and ambiguity. Their style reveals a fascination with mood and texture where a sense of place figures prominently. From America, Europe, Cuba, Mexico, India to Japan they blend fervent passion for photography and film with a lasting love for one another. BJ Formento American born moved to NYC in 1999 and learned from esteemed masters such as Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark and Arnold Newman. Richeille Formento was born in London and received her degrees from the prestigious Central St. Martins College of Art before working as an art director in the fashion industry.

In 2005, BJ and Richeille met while working together on a job in South Beach, Miami. They admit to love at first sight, and were married in New York City three months later. Working together as Formento & Formento, they have been presented with Vogue’s New Exposure Award for their work with Bottega Veneta. Formento & Formento come out of this hybrid lineage of art and fashion. You might call them third Pictures Generation artists. Their work conjures the sensibility of an art film and extends it though lengthy series. Although their work is usually not explicit fashion, they tend to observe high fashion standards in casting, hair and makeup, which invariably injects a frisson of glamor into the scenario. Their locations and their lighting are first rate, giving a genuine cinematic sensibility to the photographs in the way Crewdson achieves big screen values, but Formento & Formento are a duo that travels light and manages to achieve soundstage quality without Hollywood budgets.

In their first major body of work they created a dramatic portrait of the American West, “Circumstance” embodies the combined American visions of both BJ and Richeille. Capturing a country during uncertain times, their dramatically lit subjects are transformed into heroines and femme fatales caught in intense moments of emotion and reflection, traveling in a mobile home and finding locations and casting on the fly. In the Japan Diaries the arrived as outsiders, bringing with them rich impressions accumulated from Japanese art and cinema, but possessing keen fresh eyes hungry for the exotic aesthetic contrarieties of this ancient yet ultramodern culture.

Their work has convoked a passionate following in a short time with representation and exhibitions that span the globe.  Represented by Fahey Klein Gallery Los Angeles to Taylor Graham in NYC to La Photographie Galerie in Belgium, with auction records with Bonhams and permanent collections with International Center for Photography NYC, Currier Museum, Boca Raton Museum and Lewben Museum. More recent is their foray in filmmaking won them accolades at Cannes Film Festival 2016 and raising funds for International Rescue Committee with their short film « The Voyage » that drew thousands of people during Art Basel Miami Beach 2015.  In September 2013 the Formentos celebrated the release of their first art tome, Circumstance, published by YK Editions, accompanied by a short documentary on their work shown in Paris and their 2nd book published in 2015 entitled “Cinematic Chronicles” Their increased presence in the international art fair circuit includes Paris Photo, AIPAD, The Armory Show, Photo Shanghai, Art Silicon, Art Miami, Art Wynwood , Art New York and Photo London. They also pay it forward speaking at art schools as well as teaching workshops.  2018 brings their third book showcasing 10 years of work published by Gliteratti Books.

« Formento & Formento have come a long way in a short time, but they have shown that they live for the journey and it will continue, leading wherever it takes them. They are professional tourists, bringing expertise, imagination and an almost alien gift for absorbing and rendering the spirit of a time and place. 

William S. Burroughs, who loved to collaborate and who created “the cut up method” with painter Brion Gysin, said that when two minds work together they create a third mind. Here we see that two eyes can create a third eye, and everyone knows that the third eye can see through time and space, showing us things otherwise invisible. » Glenn O’Brien