Fashion Photography Horst P Horst

                 For the task of identifying and researching a fashion photographer we were split into groups of 2 and told to seek out someone we admired that had a distinctive style before researching their career and portfolio so we opted for the man with two same names....

                                                       Horst P Horst 1909 - 1999

" I like taking photographs, because I like life. And I love photographing people best of all, because most of all I love humanity"

                     Born Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann and of German/ American parentage, he became a fashion photographer of note who's mainly monochromatic images featured clean lines and a certain classiness that you lead to him photographing many of the celebrities of the time including Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Bette Davis. In 1937 he met Coco Channel and this bond flourished as he went on to photograph her fashions for the next 30 years. 

                                                                                       

                        Influenced by the work of other fashion photographers such as Edward Steichen his style was such that he'd rarely shoot with shadows on the background which he would achieve by using 4 spotlights but with one placed above shining down from the ceiling, he also rarely used filters. Many of his shoots were shot where the sets and props were all prearranged in advance so he could then just issue the models with short and brief instructions when it came to the pose, plus it should also be noted that he generally left others to develop, print and crop his work . The majority of his fashion shoots would involve women including a lot of work for Vogue magazine with whom he became friends with its editor in chief, Diana Vreeland.

                                              

                                            

                             Horst's most iconic image Mainbocher Corset shot in the Vogue studio in Paris in 1939, was also a heavy influence, as was a lot of his work, on the video for Madonna's Vogue and you can just fast forward to 4:23 if you want to miss out all the other palaver that proceeds it, but to be fair, the entire video is a good representation of his work and style. 

                                              

                               I'd consider myself an admirer of Horst's work as it's classy, no nonsense and stylish plus his use of black and white really appeals to be and even the stuff he did that did features colour is again sleek and stylish as it was usually based on a single colour background to make the clothes and the model really catch the viewers attention, which is after all, what the   fashion industry is all about. 

                                               
                                       More of Horst's work can be seen in a variety of places but a good place to start would be on the website that bears his name, although this time only the once .