About

“Guzman is reversing the tradition that women are the objects in a man‘s world. Here the women are in control; and the men are the objects. As fashion is mainly a woman‘s world it seems to be more natural to portray it this way.”
- Russell Peacock

Guzman, or Les Guzman, are Connie Hansen and Russell Peacock, a sophisticated husband-and-wife team running a studio in 31st Street in the Little Korea district of Manhattan, New York. The women they shoot are marvelously self-assured, with a latent sexuality lingering just beneath the surface. Their men are often emasculate, puerile and all but threatening. All in all, the traditional gender roles are reversed. Their images also tend to be heavily retouched, which alienates the people portrayed from reality.

Starting out as a team in 1984, they first focused mainly on commercial studio photography. After veering away from studio work and toward more cutting edge fashion and portrait photography they were soon discovered by the French advertising world and went over to Paris to try their luck. As they have a habit of shooting the same subject simultaneously, often even using the same equipment, Hansen and Peacock started looking for a single name that would stand in for both of them. In 1987 the two-piece established themselves under the fictitious name of Guzman. By then they had cultivated the European fascination with retouching, taking it to the next level. They have since moved back to their native New York City.