Is life still enjoyable today? I am Miss Red Velvet who loves fashion and life, and is always full of curiosity!
In the past, I thought that the progress of technology and the times would make our aesthetics leap forward. However, after visiting Taikoo Li Qiantan and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A Museum) in London, the first time to introduce China's "most outstanding fashion photography giant of the 20th century" Horst · After P. Horst's large retrospective, I found out that this was not the case.
Although we now have more advanced imaging tools and means, and can even modify the shape of our faces, skin tones, erase imperfections, and even place people in a flowing space of light and shadow (as in Teamlab's exhibition), human beings have no better ability to create and record beauty than they were in the 1930s, nearly 100 years ago.
On the contrary, we may have lost a lot of precious perspectives and sensibilities.
Horst S. P. Horst, like a gifted observer, documented the golden age of Paris and New York in the 1930s and '40s with a clumsy reflex camera that was still "viewfinder above, lens below".
I was amazed at how elegant, intellectual, noble and charming the female figure from his unique perspective is, with a storytelling that is lacking in today's industrialized society, reaching a height of beauty that seems unattainable to us.
And what are we missing now?
"Horst Light and Shadow"
Mainbocher Corset ，Horst P. Horst, Paris, 1939.
In November 2017, at an auction at Christie's in London, Horst Brown was a team member of Christie's. P. Horst's photograph "Mainboucher Corset" (Mamboucher corset) sold for £20,000. This is nearly 180,000 yuan a photo!
The woman in the picture has her back to the camera, dressed in a loose corset, and her muscular lines and postures imbued with the aesthetics of ancient Greek power exude classical beauty and mystery (some commentators say that she is vulnerable in the face of destruction). Although this photograph was taken in a hurry on Horst's last night in Paris before the war, he flew to the United States the next day. But as the so-called "magic hand comes to it", I didn't expect it to become one of the most out-of-the-circle photos in the fashion industry in the 20th century.
Let's take a look at some of his early black-and-white works:
Hat and coat-dress by Bergdorf Goodman, modelled by Estrella Boissevain, 1938.
In Horst's language of light and shadow, you seem to see the fusion of art and aesthetics such as architecture, classicism, and surrealism. He has a very delicate grasp of the details of the lighting, as if he has created a three-dimensional figure in a two-dimensional plane.
In those days without digital technology and Photoshop, it wasn't easy to take a good photo. Horst once described his shooting process as follows: "You need to position the model first, and then you need to set up the film and do the framing. After pressing the shutter, you don't know the exact exposure time, so you need to keep an eye on the model and the camera at the same time, and also pay attention to the duration with a stopwatch. Sometimes it lasts for tens of seconds. One can imagine how hard it was to shoot.
And his works are also unforgettable. As photographer Bruce Webb puts it, "Horst's signature characters always give a sense of untouchable distance, as if they were from another world." You can't help but take an interest in them, want to know their stories, fantasize about falling in love with them. ”
In my opinion, his unique shooting style is inseparable from his study of art, architecture and sculpture. Horst was interested in avant-garde art as a child, and grew up majoring in architecture, studying design and carpentry under Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school.
After moving to Paris, he became an apprentice to the architect Le Corbusier. It was during this period that he met Georges Honingen, the star photographer of French Vogue magazine, and was influenced by him to turn from architecture to photography.
Less than a year after studying photography, he published his first work on Vogue in France, and the photos were well received as soon as they were published. Soon after, he became the queen photographer of Vogue in the United States and France, and opened his own solo photography exhibition in Paris the following year.
The layered light and dark contrast can be said to be Horst's unique "Horst's exclusive light and shadow aesthetics". The chiaroscuro effect originally referred to the dramatic effect of using chiaroscuro techniques in painting. In German Expressionist films, it is often used to create light and dark areas, especially in black and white films. It was Höss who was particularly ingenious in applying this concept to fashion photography.
In addition, he is also a sculpture fan, and likes to travel all the way from Paris to London to see ancient Greek marble carvings at the British Museum, and his exploration of ancient Greek art has also fed back a unique style of photography. He applied the same way he used the sculptures in the museum to the people in the photographs, making them more vivid.
Horst in the New York studio for supermodel Lisa Horst Lisa Fonssagrives directs the behind-the-scenes moments of the lights and cameras while taking fashion photos
What is a master? The master sculptor Rodin said: "The so-called masters, they use their own eyes to see what others have seen, and they can find beauty in the things that others are accustomed to." "Horst is a veritable master.
The unique balance of light and shadow, the contrast between light and dark creates a clear sense of layering, and the dramatic lighting and composition tell a story of timeless elegance
"First-class public relations skills and first-class learning skills"
As World War II approached, theater and film became popular as an effective means of escapism. Horst wasted no time in starting to photograph film actors and a new generation of celebrities.
In addition, he has established collaborations and friendships with many well-known designers and artists, including Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Frank, etc. In his lens, the precious imprint of these famous people was left behind.
In a sense, it was Horst who first showed the world the charm of Chanel's couture to the wider world, and continued the elegance of the fashion queen's design in the form of photography. The following picture is Chanel sitting on the sofa thinking about ending a relationship:
Cocoa · Chanel
Surrealist artist Dalí also presents a completely different side from the usual grotesques in his shots, and becomes extraordinarily quiet.
Salvador Dalí
In 1945, after filming U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Horst began being invited to photograph every first lady in the postwar period. In addition, he worked with the British diplomat Valentine. Lawford became friends and together they went to photograph quite a few castles.
Decades later, Lawford also wrote a biography of him, Horst: His Works and His World. Allowing both the president and diplomats to help him develop his career is a testament to Khorst's social talents.
Horst, His Work And His World
In the 30s of the 20th century, surrealism began to have a wide influence in the fields of design, fashion, advertising, theater, and film. Following this trend, Horst combined mystical surreal elements with classical aesthetics, pioneering the use of trompe-l'oeil still life principles in classical painting to photograph people. Using the combination of people and still lifes, his works present an avant-garde artistic perception.
Lisa · Fosage Forses, The Hand with the Vase, 1941
Also at the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, when color photography technology had advanced dramatically, Horst quickly learned to master this new visual technique, taking hundreds of dazzling and vibrant color photographs for Vogue magazine, and his work presented a highly saturated sense of harmony.
Dinner suit and headdress by Schiaparelli, 1947
Horst's cover shoot for the world's first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn
Between the large number of fashions he took in the early stage and the large number of portraits he shot in the later period, we can also see the change in Horst's shooting thinking. For fashion, he draws attention to the model's face by creating an overall sense of spatial atmosphere, bringing the picture closer to a sculptural silhouette.
When photographing people, he will design some actions to put the characters in a different situation, showing more subtle things in the character's expression or state. Of course, I think it's another higher level of atmosphere creation. Calling him "the originator of the sense of atmosphere" is not in vain.
The lighting, setting, decoration, use of colour and ambience make Horst's style difficult to imitate, if not recognized. As a result, it is appreciated by numerous designers, celebrities, political celebrities, and royalty. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich, and ageless supermodel Carmen Dale Ollifis, who is still active in the fashion industry at the age of 87, have all praised his work.
An interesting anecdote is that during a photo shoot for movie star Marlene Dietrich, Dietrich had been complaining that she was not satisfied with the lighting, but when she saw the photos, she found that Horst's lighting perfectly faded her wrinkles, which can be called a "beautifying" effect, making her look younger! It is conceivable that in the end, Dietrich bought more than a dozen photos of herself in one go, and became a loyal fan and word-of-mouth user of Horst.
Horst never deliberately pursued fashion, he once said: "Fashion is an expression of the times, and elegance is another matter." ”
"Never set limits, always move forward"
For 60 years, from 1931 to 1991, the name Horst was seen as synonymous with creating elegant images. But he doesn't seem to dwell on past achievements, but has been looking for opportunities to open up new "battlefields".
During the war in 1946, Horst enlisted in the army and became an army photographer. Without the opportunity to photograph fashion and celebrities, he created a series of black-and-white close-up photographs of plants, shells and minerals. He transplanted the techniques of fashion photography to the photography of these still lifes and plants, and even created a new atmosphere.
This is an interesting contrast to his fashion career. In New York, Monterrey, and Mexico, Horst used Roulaifora and graphic cameras to capture the detailed textures and shapes of these natural objects, including plants, rocks, shells, and butterfly wings. His close examination of these things makes them instructive.
These images were collected into the book "Patterns from Nature", which contains 9 kaleidoscopic images made by simply repeating the photographs. Horst believes these dynamic patterns will be "suitable for industrial sectors such as textiles, wallpaper, carpets, plastics and glass".
Subsequently, the editor of the American edition of VOGUE, Diana. Freeland commissioned Horst to photograph a series of homes and gardens that gave his career a new lease of life.
I now realise that a dozen years later, the methods and imitations that we, the feature and lifestyle editors, used to shoot magazine blockbusters were the same ones pioneered by Horst's predecessors!
I think that at that time, Horst was able to think of using the technique of fashion photography to put people in the environment of the home and produce an incredible "chemical reaction", which would not have been possible without a forward-looking vision and an attitude of never setting limits on himself.
As a master who has gone down in history, what reason do we ordinary people have to set limits for our future? Breaking through oneself and trying the unknown is always the only way to achieve success!
"Horst: Legendary Fashion Photographers" premiere exhibition in China
On the occasion of the second anniversary of Taikoo Li Qiantan's Let's Chic Well, Horst: Photographer of Style, which was a sensation at the V&A Museum, was held for the first time in China.
Curated by Lisa Springer, the V&A's Curator of Photography Traveling, the exhibition features 75 photographs, including iconic images taken by Horst for major magazines, as well as stunning interiors and large-scale color prints on fashion magazine covers.
Curator: Lisa Springer, Taikoo Li Qiantan, 2023
This is an authoritative large-scale retrospective of Horst's work, exploring the brilliant and rare experimental works, surrealist still lifes, travel and life photography of his 60-year career.
Installation view of "Horst: Legendary Masters of Fashion Photography", Taikoo Li Qiantan
Through the themes of "Haute Couture", "Surrealism", "Stage and Screen", "Color Fashion" and "Lifestyle", the exhibition begins in Paris in the 1930s and offers a glimpse of the luxurious haute couture, dazzling Hollywood stars, and the ingenious collaboration of light, composition and atmosphere. Through the evocative fashion images created by Horst, the audience is created to create an avant-garde and classic fashion sensory world.
Mohammed Agha, a former art director of Vogue magazine in the United States, said of Horst's work: "Every pose of the model in Horst's lens is carefully choreographed, down to the point where every line needs to be in harmony with the whole picture. Some of the movements seem natural and careless, but they are actually carefully rehearsed. ”
And the real master may be the kind of person who can find the grand narrative line that we have ignored in the most ordinary scenes, and create classics that can be passed on.
Welcome to the Horst Universe of Light and Shadow to regain the perception and yearning of the forgotten beauty!
Mainbocher Corset ，Horst P. Horst, Paris, 1939.
Exhibition Information:
"Horst: Legendary Fashion Photographers" – the V&A World Tour
Duration: 2023.9.30-11.19 10:00-22:00 every day
Address: Taikoo Li Qiantan Revitalization Space Multi-purpose Hall, No. 500 Dongyu Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai
I am Miss Red Velvet who is witty and understands life, welcome to follow me and make your life different from now on!
#Fashion##Portrait Photography##大师#
@Today's headlines @Headlines fashion