The world of art, literature, film and fashion collide in renowned American photographer Duane Michals’s latest campaign for Bottega Veneta, starring Jacob Elordi.
Michals presents a short film and a series of black-and-white photographs shot in his signature style since the 1960s: mysterious, enigmatic, and deeply complex.
Across the 12 images, Elordi is staged with floating feathers, billowing curtains, and dancing marionettes held by Michals himself. There are references to the Surrealist works of Réné Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico. With shadowy doubles and distorted reflections in the convex mirror, the imagery fits perfectly with Elordi’s character as The Creature in his latest film, Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro. As with the source material, Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel of the same name, the haunting themes of knowledge, humanity, reality, and the self emerge in this campaign.
“I’m very much interested in the realm of the invisible,” says Michals. “My problem is how do I make the invisible visible? Of course movie making is also a dream, and Frankenstein is a scary dream.”
In the accompanying short film, Elordi reads Michals’ poem What are Dreams?, originally published in his 2001 photo book Questions without Answers.
Michals adds about the Bottega Veneta brand ambassador: “Jacob understood exactly what I was trying to do with the project. He was right there for the magic and the mystery of it.”
Similar sentiments about the Australian actor have been expressed by directors, notably Guillaume del Toro and Sofia Coppola, over the years. A far cry from his early days starring in Netflix’s teen romance franchise, The Kissing Booth, and HBO’s Euphoria, this campaign captures the new chapter of Elordi’s career as an actor.
Frankenstein opens to public on 7 November, 2025, and will shortly be followed by another movie adaptation of a famous Gothic novel, Wuthering Heights, by Emerald Fennell on 13 February, 2026.
