Horst: Photographer in style
The first section
looked at Horst’s fashion work in the early 20th century during the time he was
one of Vogue’s first star photographers. It was great that these were shown
with a selection of outfits by the same designers from the museum’s own
collections. It gave the slightly static pictures a lovely life and vibrancy.
The next section
looked at his surrealist work from early pieces with Dali and working with
Schiaparelli’s designs through to surreal still lives he did in 1989. I loved
“Hands, hands, hands” from 1941, a chain of black and white hands. The show
also included the untouched version of his Mainbocher corset shot as well as
the iconic finished version.
Next the show
looked at his portraits of movie stars and his travel work taken while staying
with his partner, Valentine Lawford, the political counsellor at the British
Embassy in Tehran. I loved his pictures of Assyrian archaeology particularly a
tunnel of arches.
There was a
lovely display to mark the advent of colour in his work with a big table of
Vague covers by his with large reproductions of them around the walls. Also a
section on his work photographing celebrity houses.
The last section
had modern reproductions with a technique using platinum which included some
amazing male nudes from the 1950s.
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TimesEvening Standard
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