Legendary Berghain bouncer shoots fashion campaign

When he’s not manning the door of Berlin’s notorious nightclub Berghain, Sven Marquardt is a keen photographer. In fact, working predominantly in analogue, Marquardt has spent the last 30 years training his lens on the German capital and those who inhabit it. Now, however, he’s shot a fashion campaign. 

Unveiled this week, the campaign is for German brand ITEM m6 and showcases the label’s new capsule collection of high-tech socks on male model posing in a boxing ring. 

“It is crucial to me that these kinds of collaborations don’t interfere with my artistic freedom and of course the quality and coolness of the product is a key consideration,” said Marquardt in an interview with WWD. “I was inspired by boxing matches, which represent masculinity, victory, pride, but also vulnerability and something rebellious. With this idea in mind, we selected our models, men who know the boxing ring and represent all of its emotions.”

But this isn’t Marquardt’s first foray into fashion – in 2014, he teamed up with Hugo Boss to create a range of t-shirts printed with his photography.

It is photography, however, that remains Marquardt’s first love – earlier this year, he showcased some of his portraits of the people of Berlin in an exhibition titled Future’s Past, staged first in Sydney and more recently, in Ibiza. “There has been so much which has inspired me: music, films, photographs,” he said in a recent Dazed interview. “It is always the zeitgeist in combination with tradition that excites and challenges me.”