We're Unwerthy

Ellen von Unwerth is one of those photographers who is able to hit an art director's fantasies so dead-on that the photographs don't need to be good. They look as if someone handed a model a camera during a break at a fashion shoot, and she had a fun time with it. And that's what they are, and they work.

Google her name, take in a little sample of her photographs and you'll realize: she's everywhere. And has been, for a long long time. Generally, though, that doesn't mean every advertisement in the subway. It does now. For about a week or so, waiting at my usual stops has meant staring at the new Equinox ads. Adweek explains:

Equinox Gets Racy in Push From Fallon

"In one, a group of nuns in a candlelit room are rooted to the spot by a nude male model they are sketching. In another, a male model, wearing only skintight gold lamé underpants, is bent over into the shape of a table. On his stomach rests a platter of fruit that a group of women dressed as if they were going to a masquerade pick at."

That's right: the one in the subway is the one with the gold lamé undies.