Matthu Placek’s meticulously composed, elegant pictures are anything but staid. Inspired by the fantasy films of his youth, Placek infuses magic into his deceptively simple photographic portraits by organizing the world as he envisions it around his subjects and letting their spirit take over. Whether collaborating with artists like Vanessa Beecroft and Marina Abramović or formal documentations of their performance pieces, creating portraits of artists and musicians like Stella and Julian Schnabel, Richard Phillips or Paulo Szot, Placek’s eye is for making a picture that tells a story.  www.matthuplacek.com