A young, potent man leers intensely at a candle.
Does he see the light, or is he obsessed by some other flame?
Just one of the images at the "Off The Record -- Karl Lagerfeld in St Petersburg" exhibition at The St Petersburg New Academy of Fine Arts.
It is no mystery why the exhibition is called "Off the record."
Lagerfeld did not show his photos to the public until 1993, when his first exhibition, "Kunst Und Geverbe" (Art and Trade) was held in his home town of Hamburg. But is there anything behind the poses on the wall and inside Karl's huge purple book other than a desire to shock, to stimulate, to excite attention.
The purple album, emblazoned with the letters "KL" is a review of Lagerfeld's photos over the last 20 years.
The rest of the exhibition consists of a variety of prints hung on the wall.
"Off The Record" is similar to the "Kunst and Geverbe" exhibition and shows works from several series.
One of these, "Dr Caligari's Cabinet," is mostly interesting for its contemporary explication of decorated interiors.
As in the Robert Viney film of 1919, the photos are set against richly decorated backgrounds, depicting mournful furniture-scapes with gloomy glimpses of murky panoramas.
Other series are on a smaller scale.
Their impact forces your attention through the models' striking poses. At times they are posed as vulgar characters, in shocking apposition to their aristocratic clothing.
One picture is strikingly reminiscent of the recent hollywood film "Wolf."
A beautiful lady lies under a half-naked man, who opens his mouth savagely wide and wild. Can it be coincidence that the woman is Claudia Scheiffer, who played in "Wolf" with Jack Nicholson?
Other famous models that Lagerfeld used as subjects include Christie Torlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista.
The obvious connections between Lagerfeld's work and mainstream culture dovetail nicely with the Academy's well-known yearning for a return to classical norms in art.
Students and professors of Academy, certain of the avantgarde's intrinsic worthlessness, hunger for an art that focuses on objects of beauty.
The Academy's exhibition program list for this academic year (Sep 1994 to May 1995) is designed to express "youth's love of the beautiful."
Most Russians have known of Karl Lagerfeld only since the opening of his eponymous clothing store clothing shop on Nevsky Prospect.
However, the name Chanel has a longer history here.
The popular 60s Soviet comedy, "The Diamond Hand," by Guydie, used "Chanel No 5" as a metaphor for the dependency upon material endemic in capitalist life.
Karl Lagerfeld, born in 1939, began his interest in fashion in the 1950s. At that time the young Karl often visited high class fashion salons with his mother.
The family moved to Paris from Hamburg in 1955, when he was 16.
At that time he stunned all by winning first prize at the "International wool association" competition; second prize went to Yves St Laurent.
He has been the main designer at Chanel since 1983.
His success perhaps stems from being the first German designer to impact on the French cultural scene.
The New Academy's director, Timur Novikov, feels that Lagerfeld's photos owe much to his time at Chanel.
All those years working at Chanel, Lagerfeld was under the rigorous discipline of a huge, commercial fashion house, Mr Novikov said.
Although he loved the work he was doing for Chanel, his creativity was limited by the need to serve the traditions and inherited style of Chanel, he added.
The Academy's director feels that Lagerfeld's photography shows both the influence of that Chanel tradition and a desire to escape from that influence into the world of his own untrammelled self.
He was also surrounded by the best models in the world, who represented "accepted" beauty, according to Mr Novikov.
These recent forays into the world of photo art exhibitions by Lagerfeld have coincided with a real boom in photography as art.
There is even a guide sold in New York that gives information solely about photo galleries.
Indeed, it is becoming usual among the glitterati and the well-to-do to decorate their homes with art photos rather than with paintings.
It should be noted that Lagerfeld's photos are not expensive, only $4,000.
Could be just the thing for that space over the jacuzzi!
The exhibition received high praise from the academy's students.
One of them, Pavel Nikolayev, says, " It showed me that anyone, whatever their usual sphere of activity, can be accessible to people if he or she creates artworks reflecting on questions of beauty " ones that express the artist's inner vitality."