Study, Vol. 09 – On Viva Vadim

The broad range of subjects explored with each volume of Study speaks to the social media age in which a diverse selection of interests coexists on every person’s feed.

Each trimester Study explores one theme, talent, institution or idea.

With every volume, Study introduces a new signature or reintroduces a seasoned creative in an elegant and playful ever-evolving format. It is a season-less object, meant to be kept and to come back to.

Study pushes against the notion of relevance and has an eye toward legacy.

Study is published in English with a periodicity of 4 volumes per year.

Each volume is designed by the renowned Parisian agency Petronio Associates.

In this issue:

The ninth issue of Study marks a moment of quiet revelation. It is entirely devoted to the photography of Viva Vadim, a 22-year-old artist whose work is being published for the first time.This collection, spanning the pages like a map unfolded on the hood of a car, offers us a window into her unfiltered vision. Her images capture the essence of America, a rite of passage that has, for generations, servedas both a journey outward and inward—a search for meaning in the great unknown.

There is a striking beauty to these photographs, untouched by the burden of expectation. They are not yet weighed down by the need to conform, to perform, to please. They are free of the endless cycle of criticism and revision that so often molds young artists into palatable versions of themselves. Instead, her work exists in a state of purity.

Vadim’s lens turns its gaze to nature, to the transient details of the road—a ghost town at dusk, the sharp lines of a desert highway, the muted chaos of a parking lot. These images are not just records of place but of mood, of fleeting moments held still. A narrative told in light and shadow, in the tender space between the familiar and the strange.

This issue, is more than an introduction to an emerging talent. It is a reminder of what it means to see the world before the world has taught you how to look.

The issue also contains a portrait of Vadim written by Eleonore Condo, the first scene of a play written by Jacob Wasson and a poem by Wilson Oryema.

For the fashion insert photographer Bruce Weber and stylist by Akari Endo-Gaut went to the home of Viva Vadim, not as creators imposing a vision but as quiet witnesses to hers. The result is something that feels less like a fashion spread and more like a portrait of a young artist at the intersection of her craft and her life.