SYNONYMOUS WITH THE ART OF TRAVEL SINCE 1854, LOUIS VUITTON ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF “FASHION EYE,” A NEW COLLECTION OF TRAVEL BOOKS TO BE UNVEILED
IN NOVEMBER 2016. EACH PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM EVOKES
A CITY, A REGION, OR A COUNTRY THROUGH THE EYE
OF A FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER. THIS SPECIAL COLLECTION GETS ITS START WITH FIVE TITLES: MIAMI BY GUY BOURDIN, PARIS BY JEANLOUP SIEFF, SHANGHAI BY WING SHYA, CALIFORNIA BY KOURTNEY ROY, AND INDIA BY HENRY CLARKE.
The latest addition to Louis Vuitton Editions’ lineup, “Fashion Eye”, brings
a new dimension to travel books conceived by the luxury brand. After the City Guides with their refreshing and offbeat perspective on familiar and less familiar metropolises, and the Travel Books rekindling the idea
of the artist’s notebook, today it is the turn of travel photography to showcase the talents of photographers usually known for their work in the world of fashion.
Whether established or up-and-coming, contemporary stars or leading figures
of decades past, they all clothe their images of great cities, dream destinations. The Paris- based Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy is thus shipped off to California, only to come back with shots as flashy as they are delectable. Hong Kong native Wing Shya digs deep into his personal archives, juxtaposing photographs originally taken for his own private purposes with commissioned works,
to deliver a richly nuanced portrait of the Shanghai he loves so much. “Fashion Eye” also aims to draw attention to emblematic images from the collections of the previous century’s leading fashion photographers, rarely or never before seen in this way. A series of shots by the American photographer Henry Clarke, taken during several trips to India for American Vogue in the 1960s, are therefore
brought together for the first time, revealing an iconic sense of style, composition and staging. Similarly, the collection honors
the French photographer Guy Bourdin, who visited Miami in the late 1970s for Vogue and Charles Jourdan, bringing forth sophisticated and glamorous images of the Magic City. It is through the highly distinctive vision of the French photographer Jeanloup Sieff that the mysteries of Paris are explored, in forthright black-and-white images and
a hitherto unreleased set of color photographs. Title after title, a broad compendium
of perspectives emerges, one that shifts with the destinations, including urban panoramas and natural landscapes, scenes of local life, and more contemplative work, in both color and black and white.
Each “Fashion Eye” title features
a hundred or so large-format photographs, together with biographical information and an interview with the photographer
or a critical essay.
“Fashion Eye” establishes
an unprecedented dialogue between emerging talents, seasoned photographers, and fashion photography legends. It confronts contemporary creation with little-known archival treasures
to create a collection of invaluable reference works, as much in terms of its approach
as its aesthetics.
PHOTOGRAPHERS BIOGRAPHIES
GUY BOURDIN (1928–1991)
From 1970 until around 1985, Guy Bourdin reigned supreme as a master of bold, stylized images and a virtuoso in the dramatic use
of shapes and colors. At the height of his fame,
he photographed double-page spreads advertising the footwear creations of Charles Jourdan. Around this same time, alongside his chief rival Helmut Newton, he had begun shooting influential, and eyebrow-raising, fashion editorials for French Vogue. Bourdin’s legacy encompasses many of the now-familiar aesthetic and narrative conventions of fashion and luxury brand marketing, in particular the idea of relegating the product
to the background on occasion. Today, Bourdin
is still regarded as a leading figure in the history of fashion and advertising photography.
HENRY CLARKE (1918–1996)
Henry Clarke reached his zenith
as a fashion photographer in the 1950s and ’60s when he worked for Vogue’s various international editions. Arriving in Los Angeles
in 1946, he began his career with American Vogue as a prop man in its studio, where he had the priceless opportunity to observe at close hand the methods used by a group of prominent photographers having emerged in the 1920s, including Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst. Clarke was extremely successful in combining the sculptural elegance of early twentieth-century fashion photography with the bold and exuberant visions embraced by international fashion in
the postwar years.
JEANLOUP SIEFF (1933–2000)
His pen attuned to key literary influences, Jeanloup Sieff was a photographer and man
of letters who enjoyed jotting down episodes for his memoirs in little notebooks and loved to devise captions for his photos. Sieff’s first images coincided with his first amorous adventures,
in the mid-1950s. This was just before fashion swept the young photographer off his feet. Paris quickly became an open-air studio for his photo essays, pushing the boundaries of typical
fashion editorials, for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Nova, Glamour, and other publications. Despite his knack for producing powerful yet restrained black-and-white images and his keen eye for tonal contrasts, humor and sensuality are also key elements of Sieff’s work, making him not only an exceptional photographer, but an incomparable portrait artist as well.
WING SHYA (1964–)
At the crossroads of art, fashion and cinema, Wing Shya’s photographs are like fragments of history, hanging from a thread.
An aesthetic approach that is all about sensuality and style, echoing the equally subtle one brought to the screen by the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, for whom Shya often served
as exclusive photographer, beginning with Happy Together in 1997. A bleak yet vibrant vision that would undergo further refinement with In the Mood for Love (2000), Eros (2004), and 2046 (2004), and that has often attracted the attention of leading magazines and brands: from Vogue to Louis Vuitton, from Lacoste to Numéro,
a list also including i-D, Visionnaire and Gap.
In Shanghai, where he lives part time, he gives free rein to his unique perspective, laden with
a lyricism as sophisticated as it is voluptuous.
FASHION EYE PUBLICATION DETAILS
EDITED BY
— Sylvie Lécallier: Miami, Guy Bourdin India, Henry Clarke
— Patrick Remy: California, Kourtney Roy Paris, Jeanloup Sieff Shanghai, Wing Shya
SPECIFICITIES
— Bilingual French/English editions, including biographical information,
an interview with the photographer
or a critical essay, and photo captions.
— 50 to 100 photographs for each title.
— Dimensions: 9.3 x 12.0 in. (23.5 x 30.5 cm).
— Silk-screen printed cloth binding.
— Book text composed in Futura T, designed by Paul Renner
in 1932, digitized and distributed by Linotype (Germany).
— Printed in Italy.
— Available in Louis Vuitton stores, at louisvuitton.com,
and in selected bookstores.
— Limited edition of 1,500 copies available as a set of all five titles
in a Plexiglas case, sold exclusively at Louis Vuitton stores, €350.
TITLES TO BE RELEASED IN NOVEMBER 2016
PARIS JEANLOUP SIEFF
ISBN: 978-2-36983-084-9
112 pages
printed on Splendorlux (250 g/m2) and TerraPrint Gloss (90 g/m2)
CALIFORNIA KOURTNEY ROY
ISBN: 978-2-36983-085-6
96 pages
printed on Symbol Freelife Gloss Premium White (170 g/m2)
INDIA HENRY CLARKE
ISBN: 978-2-36983-086-3
96 pages
printed on Gardamatt Ultra (150 g/m2) and Cyclus Print (80 g/m2)
MIAMI GUY BOURDIN
ISBN: 978-2-36983-087-0
96 pages
printed on Splendorlux (250 g/m2)
SHANGHAI WING SHYA
ISBN: 978-2-36983-088-7
120 pages
printed on Selena Bianca (70 g/m2) Japanese binding
€50
Copyright
© Louis Vuitton Malletier