Andaz London Presents: Creative in Residence - Stefan Sieler

Five-star lifestyle hotel Andaz London Liverpool Street is delighted to announce the launch of its East London Creative In Residence series, with photographer Stefan Sieler’s[FA(1]  first solo exhibition Moments of Being, inspired by the hotel and showing in the historic 1901 Ballroom, from 14^th to 20^th February 2022.

Walthamstow-based photographer Sieler was allowed unrestricted access to Shoreditch’s Andaz London and the exhibition is inspired by the building’s many-layered history and eclectic design, combining its rich Victorian heritage from 1884 as The Great Eastern Hotel with today’s modern aesthetic and East London’s creative flare and colourful vibrancy.

Andaz London aims to cater for the inspired, curious traveller and Sieler’s exhibition Moments of Being explores the transient nature of a hotel and how this empowers individuals’ creative freedom, in true alignment with the hotel brand’s ethos Express Your Andaz: allowing – and more so encouraging - guests to be who they want to be in that moment.

The exhibition shares this idea of reinvention through intrigue, mystery and seduction. On a personal level, it shows the subjects in various stages of being: from playful and intimate scenes to more flamboyant pieces, with the subject conscious of their own theatre in a modern, image-saturated world.

Others have quasi-religious overtones, with the exhibition’s centrepiece artwork featuring the hotel’s stained-glass windows as the backdrop to a robed figure in a moment of contemplation, with jewel-coloured drapes and titian hair.

Each photograph portrays a lone subject occupying a different space in the hotel and the exhibition explores questions around solitude and privacy - what do we do when we’re alone, when we just.. are?

These rich and various ‘moments of being’ are inspired by the diverse history of Andaz London and the ever-changing, vibrant and creative culture of East London.

From its early origins in the 13^th century as the site for ‘Bedlam’, London’s first psychiatric hospital (1247) to its historic significance as one of the oldest purpose-built luxury railway hotels in London, surviving two world wars, hosting the 90’s famous East London nightlife hub GE Club to today’s five-star lifestyle offering: a trailblazer that lead the rise of the East End. The space acts as both inspiration and the perfect stage for exploring the theme of fleetingness, reinvention and change.

An East London institution with a rich past, Andaz London’s opulent architecture and occasionally gritty story tell a tale of contrasts. Seduction versus virtue, public versus private, grandiose versus grunge. 

With stark lighting and bold use of colour Sieler plays with the provocative, using a sometimes surrealist but always intimate tone. His photography shows us the twilight spaces where transience and containment collide to create vivid moments of escapism.

Opening in the week before London Fashion Week 2022, Stefan Sieler who has worked closely with luxury brands including Manolo Blahnik, Lulu Guinness and Grenson, takes elements of surrealism, saturation and symmetry and injects them into his work across music, fashion and still life.

Stefan Sieler has over a decade’s experience in photography and his portfolio includes portraits of Will Poulter, Chris Eubank, Martin Compston, Skin, Darryl Hannah, Ray Winstone, Jamie Winstone, Goldie, Orbital, Carl Craig, Jasmine Guinness and Melanie Blatt to name a few.