The capsule "Shame on you" presents video surveillance images
IMPORTANT NOTICE: In what is one of the most unexpected messages conveyed by a collaboration, photographer and artist Alessandro "Zuek" Simonetti has teamed up with IUTER to launch a collaboration titled "Shame on You".< /p>
The series of black and white images featured on the hoodie and other designs were taken by CCTV cameras at a grocery store in Chinatown, where owners posted publicly in an attempt to deter petty crime .
As a photographer, he's always been interested in other ways to collect images, including those that don't come directly from his own camera. During his daily stops at New York's delis, he noticed how to post photocopies of photos from surveillance cameras, which he considered similar to contemporary "Wanted" signs. They first caught his attention in 2007, years before cancel culture arose and people started using their smartphones to document what they saw as indiscretions.
Related GalleriesIn addition to having a different aesthetic "fascinating part", the images convey "the idea of doing justice for oneself". He said: “I basically stole it from the fridge of a deli in Chinatown. I went in and took out the posters. I've collected eight or nine so far,” adding that there is a recording of himself taking them. In 2007 this was featured in a 2009 exhibition of his work in Milan's Via Farini.
The 'Shame on You' collection includes a reversible bomber jacket, hoodie, long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt and printed carpenter pants. It's sold online and in select stores, including IUTER's Milan outpost. Photographer Blake Kunin shot the look book on the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn. Retail prices range from $85 to $350.
After living in New York for 16 years, the artist now divides his time between Italy and New York. He knew nothing of the recent news report by bodega employee Jose Alba, who was charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing a man who attacked him over a $3 argument with the girlfriend of the man. Having no knowledge of this incident, Simonetti pointed out that the capsule collection was created six months ago. An IUTER spokesperson later reiterated this point via email.
As prescient as the post may seem, Simonetti said, "I was totally unaware of this.…If anything, this [project] for me is [about] highlighting something. something that's in New York's DNA. Of course, there's no negative meaning behind it. New York is such a crazy city. It's sad to hear that [news].”
He is working on another New York-centric venture, a book featuring some of the many images he has photographed of people playing basketball on the city's West Fourth Street courts, known as "The Cage ". For four straight summers before the pandemic hit, he chronicled some of the street basketball that was played there and is editing photos for an upcoming coffee table book that “will tell the story of a specific corner that is still really real and alive in New York, and somehow resists change, even though everything around it is changing,” he said.
"It will be a book about basketball, but it will really be a book about New York and a specific site, including everything that happens around this court."
IMPORTANT NOTICE: In what is one of the most unexpected messages conveyed by a collaboration, photographer and artist Alessandro "Zuek" Simonetti has teamed up with IUTER to launch a collaboration titled "Shame on You".< /p>
The series of black and white images featured on the hoodie and other designs were taken by CCTV cameras at a grocery store in Chinatown, where owners posted publicly in an attempt to deter petty crime .
As a photographer, he's always been interested in other ways to collect images, including those that don't come directly from his own camera. During his daily stops at New York's delis, he noticed how to post photocopies of photos from surveillance cameras, which he considered similar to contemporary "Wanted" signs. They first caught his attention in 2007, years before cancel culture arose and people started using their smartphones to document what they saw as indiscretions.
Related GalleriesIn addition to having a different aesthetic "fascinating part", the images convey "the idea of doing justice for oneself". He said: “I basically stole it from the fridge of a deli in Chinatown. I went in and took out the posters. I've collected eight or nine so far,” adding that there is a recording of himself taking them. In 2007 this was featured in a 2009 exhibition of his work in Milan's Via Farini.
The 'Shame on You' collection includes a reversible bomber jacket, hoodie, long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt and printed carpenter pants. It's sold online and in select stores, including IUTER's Milan outpost. Photographer Blake Kunin shot the look book on the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn. Retail prices range from $85 to $350.
After living in New York for 16 years, the artist now divides his time between Italy and New York. He knew nothing of the recent news report by bodega employee Jose Alba, who was charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing a man who attacked him over a $3 argument with the girlfriend of the man. Having no knowledge of this incident, Simonetti pointed out that the capsule collection was created six months ago. An IUTER spokesperson later reiterated this point via email.
As prescient as the post may seem, Simonetti said, "I was totally unaware of this.…If anything, this [project] for me is [about] highlighting something. something that's in New York's DNA. Of course, there's no negative meaning behind it. New York is such a crazy city. It's sad to hear that [news].”
He is working on another New York-centric venture, a book featuring some of the many images he has photographed of people playing basketball on the city's West Fourth Street courts, known as "The Cage ". For four straight summers before the pandemic hit, he chronicled some of the street basketball that was played there and is editing photos for an upcoming coffee table book that “will tell the story of a specific corner that is still really real and alive in New York, and somehow resists change, even though everything around it is changing,” he said.
"It will be a book about basketball, but it will really be a book about New York and a specific site, including everything that happens around this court."
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