Horst: Photographer of Style
The Victoria & Albert Museum
The V&A are hosting the exhibition Horst: Photographer of Style, the outstanding and dedicated photographer of 60 years. The exhibition is open from 6th Sep-4th Jan. Horst P. Horst was a master at capturing women as elegant and stylish, as the V&A put it in two words “sensual sophistication”.
Horst P. Horst was chief photographer at American Vogue and the first person to have an exhibition at The Louvre in Paris. He started in the 1930’s, the era of Paris and Haute Couture, surrealism and colour photography. Horst not only photographed women and fashion but experimented with still life and nudes. MALE NUDES. The first and most beautiful professional male nudes I have ever seen. Being inspired by greek sculpture and the beauty of the body from german culture may
be why they are so atmospheric.
The exhibition takes you through the stages of Horst’s career and their influence on his photographs. It was refreshing to enter the rooms of surrealism and colour photography. His surreal images so weird and contemporary that they look like they came out of the latest fashion
magazines. The photographs look incredible blown up, rich with colour, attitude and allowing the eye to see the defined shine of silk and the brownness of the brunettes, colourful enough to eat.
But that’s not all you get to see. You can get personal with Horst by reading letters from Diana Vreeland (written on a typewriter with an OTT signature), notebooks, sketches, notes reminding himself to turn photos upside down or to crop, his essential belongings and a colourful red lipped Vogue cover archive.
He created unknown and known worlds inside the studio with precise sets lit in all the correct places. The unknown worlds were those photographs of a model in what looks like the edge of a rocket or Schiaparelli coming out of a picture frame. Horst created real and warm photos like the photograph Bombay Bathing Fashion which Horst described as “The picture is simple, relaxed. It is human”. He also shot models reading The New York Times, putting on lipstick and getting their nails done.
Today, the majority of fashion editorials and designers have moved into the future, obviously influenced by our digi world now. It’s the cool thing to not have much happening in the background of an image, for the hunched model to be dressed head to toe in white with straight silhouettes and wet hair with minimal make up. A strange situation to imagine Horst in. An old archive but fresh imagery and technique is worth looking back at.
Expect to see and hear intense and technical conversations between retired and present photographers about the photograph in front of them. Adding to the sophisticated journey of one of history’s best and long standing photographers in fashion.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-horst-photographer-of-style
Article by Bronwyn Stemp.