Mind The Gap

Here’s a funny little article from January 2003, taken from London’s Metro Magazine which anticipated the Gap campaign in a peculiar way.

MADONNA MISSES CHANCE TO GET INTO THE GROOVE
Eileen’s photo show celebrates those who don’t mind the gap

It could have been Madonna‘s next big break.
But the pop icon-turned-Notting Hill-housewife, spurned the chance to pose for artist Eileen Perrier‘s latest exhibition, on show to millions on the Tube.
Instead Eileen asked for volunteers – with one crucial stipulation.
She explained: “I was curious to know if others with a gap between their teeth like me would come forward to be photographed.”
But she resisted calling her second solo exhibition Mind the Gap – calling it Grace, a celebration of being different. 
Eileen, who graduated in photography from the Royal College of Art two years ago, found most of her models through radio appeals after Madonna’s refusal.

“Her agent was quick to tell me the star was just not available but, in hindsight, it allowed me to photograph people an audience could relate to more easily.
I felt it was a sensitive issue.”
She also wanted to recapture schooldays’ photography, where everyone looked the same in class pictures.
The exhibition, part of the Tube’s Platform for Art, runs until March 18 at Piccadilly Circus.