Guy Bourdin: Image-Maker

Disappointing exhibition at Somerset House of the work of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin.

There were some lovely work in this show but I found it became quite repetitive and the work came from quite a narrow time frame. I would also have liked more commentary on the pictures to tell me more about who the model was and what the clothes were. It was very much a style of fashion photography which was more about the style of the picture than the clothes.

I did like the first section where he had been commissioned to do a series of adverts for the shoe maker Charles Jourdan so he set off around Britain with a pair of manikin legs and lots of shoes and photographer the disembodied legs in various settings.

There were some striking images but I found the whole show rather sterile and unengaging.

Review
Times

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