Courtney Love by Hedi Silmane: Portrait of a Performer

Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane has always stood at the intersection of fashion, art and music. Over the past 10 years, his slick, sexy designs and signature cut have revolutionized menswear. Several bodies of his photographic work--2005's London Birth of a Cult and his ongoing "Rock Diary" series for V magazine--have documented underground rock culture at its loudest and most extreme. In this latest project, Slimane teams up with the editors of Visionaire and V to deliver Portrait of a Performer, an exclusive photojournal devoted to the provocative musician and muse, Courtney Love. Shot in New York in August of 2006, just before the release of Love's latest record, the intimate black-and-white studies capture the American pop icon, semi-nude, just before her return to the Billboard charts--defiant, mesmerizing, flawed and vulnerable. Portrait of a Performer documents a highly charged encounter between two creative forces who have influenced rock and fashion, each on their own terms.