Horst
Strike A Pose
As well as a lover of all design and art, I am also an avid follower of fashion and an admirer of beautiful, elegant people.
I am obsessed with style, both past and present and I am a serious collector of glossy magazines and coffee table books from interiors, photography to all things fashion.
I am very excited by The V&A opening it's doors to a major retrospective of the works of the iconic photographer of style, Horst P. Horst. An exhibition not to be missed.
The exhibition celebrates not only Horst's exquisite works but also tells a story of Horst, the artist himself, whose career spanned much of the 20th century.
Making his way to Paris in the 1930's, the German born Horst was originally to train as an architect with Le Corbusier. Instead his career took a turn to fashion under a watchful eye of his mentor George Heyningen-Huene and the powerful publisher Conde Montrose Nast. By the mid 1930's his images frequently embraced the pages of French,British and American Vogue.
Image from Google Images
His work was heavily influenced by classical art, architecture and the Bauhaus movement. His extraordinary flair for composition and lighting is easily seen in his famous images and it was not unusual for it to take several days creating and setting up lighting for his shoots. His sketches are an example on the vast amount of planning and preparation that Horst put into his images. Throughout his career he remained focused on timeless elegance rather than passing trends.
Horst's portrait photography was also fairly wide-spread from artists, politicians to royalty, later expanding to the glamour of Hollywood and it's shining screen stars. The escapism provided by theatre and film gained in popularity with the second world war and this brought on another dimension to Horst's work and focus.
As well as a lover of all design and art, I am also an avid follower of fashion and an admirer of beautiful, elegant people.
I am obsessed with style, both past and present and I am a serious collector of glossy magazines and coffee table books from interiors, photography to all things fashion.
Image from Google Images
I am very excited by The V&A opening it's doors to a major retrospective of the works of the iconic photographer of style, Horst P. Horst. An exhibition not to be missed.
The exhibition celebrates not only Horst's exquisite works but also tells a story of Horst, the artist himself, whose career spanned much of the 20th century.
Image from Google Images
Making his way to Paris in the 1930's, the German born Horst was originally to train as an architect with Le Corbusier. Instead his career took a turn to fashion under a watchful eye of his mentor George Heyningen-Huene and the powerful publisher Conde Montrose Nast. By the mid 1930's his images frequently embraced the pages of French,British and American Vogue.
His work was heavily influenced by classical art, architecture and the Bauhaus movement. His extraordinary flair for composition and lighting is easily seen in his famous images and it was not unusual for it to take several days creating and setting up lighting for his shoots. His sketches are an example on the vast amount of planning and preparation that Horst put into his images. Throughout his career he remained focused on timeless elegance rather than passing trends.
Mainbocher Corset, 1939.
His most celebrated photograph of it's era.
Image from Google Images
Horst's portrait photography was also fairly wide-spread from artists, politicians to royalty, later expanding to the glamour of Hollywood and it's shining screen stars. The escapism provided by theatre and film gained in popularity with the second world war and this brought on another dimension to Horst's work and focus.
Marilyn Monroe
Image from Google Images
Horst also photographed and documented his travels and a personal project to capture images of patterns from nature has also been published.
In the 1950's Horst produced a set of nudes, unlike his previous works, that celebrate the ideal human body and resemble classical sculptures with a huge emphasis on light and shadow.
Image from Google Images
Exhibition currently showing till 4th January at the grand settings of the V&A, London.
'Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again'
Horst, 1984.
Enjoy!
Kx
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