The Life of a Showgirl reunites Taylor Swift with images duo Mert and Marcus

On 13 August, throughout her look on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, Swift revealed her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The announcement got here with a picture of Swift submerged in water, flaunting a bejewelled ensemble. Across the body, the title seems in glittery orange script, a color selection already loaded with significance for followers, linked to the glowing orange door that closed every Eras Tour present in the course of the live performance’s encore of “Karma.”

Speaking on the podcast, Swift defined her option to concentrate on what she describes as an “offstage” second. “My day ends in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress… I wanted to glamorise all the aspects of how the tour felt. I wanted to have an offstage moment as the main album cover because the album isn’t really about what happened onstage, but what happened offstage.” For followers who’ve skilled the shimmering spectacle of her Eras Tour, the album art work displays a stillness after three hours of deafening screams and efficiency.

The shot belongs to Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot, who’ve been among the many most recognisable names in trend images since they joined forces in 1994. Meeting in England, the duo left behind their preliminary careers in classical music and graphic design to pursue work behind the digital camera. Since then, their work has appeared in Vogue, Vogue Italia, W, and Numéro, alongside campaigns for Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Fendi, in addition to portraits of artists akin to Madonna, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga. The pair’s work is outlined by a way of theatre, combining cinematic lighting with high-drama styling.

Swift entered their lens in 2016 for American Vogue’s May cowl story, editorial marked a pointy flip from the polish of her 1989 period, topped with platinum hair and slip attire in substitute of the then 26-year-old’s crop tops and shiny skirts. What felt like a reintroduction truly grew to become a touch at a change in route simply months earlier than she stepped away from the general public eye for over a 12 months.

When the pop star returned in 2017 along with her seventh studio album, repute, Mert and Marcus had been once more on the forefront of this new period. They shot the tight portrait of Swift layered over a collage of her title, printed within the model of tabloid headlines, hinting at a self-aware interval that mirrored the album’s themes of media scrutiny and privateness. They had been additionally accountable for certainly one of two unique journal editions for the album, a 72-page compilation that includes images and handwritten lyrics.

In a previous interview with Time, Mert Alas remembers working with Swift on the challenge. “She’s got the most incredible photographic eye,” he informed Time. “The first time we worked with her years ago, we connected instantly. I like it when someone has an opinion and a point of view, and Taylor had an incredible point of view.”

Eight years on from repute, The Life of a Showgirl brings the collaborators again collectively to border what Swift describes as “the life beyond the show… everything that was going on behind the curtain.”