V&A - HORST EXHIBITION
Horst (1906-99) created images conveying the movement of time and fashion. He had mastered the technique of light, composition and atmospheric illusion.
Throughout his 60 year career his work graced the pages of acclaimed fashion magazine Vogue and House and Garden all under one iconic byline 'Horst'. He ranks alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as one of the pre-eminent fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century. |
Haute Couture
During the time of Horst's work Paris was still the undisputed capital of fashion the word 'haute couture' originated in France and translates into 'high fashion', as this was the creation of bespoke items of clothing often priceless and designed for runways not everyday fashion. Haute couture was a style which began to grow in the 1930's when Horst started working together with Vogue to create images such as the one to the right. It shows a model lit up and in the centre of the image. This image creates a sense of importance and beauty as all the attention is focused on her and what she is wearing (haute couture items), this is achieved by creating shadows around the model to emphasise her presence in the photograph.
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Surrealism
Surrealism was another popular style of art in the 1930's. It was comprised of unique glimpses of the world using dreams and the subconscious for inspiration. Horst's collection in the surrealist movement came through in mainly in fashion, it also dominated the scenes of adverts, theatre and film however the picture on the left was more opposed from his conventional pieces of work. It shows multiple hands linked to one another over a half black half white background. The use of tone, shading and contrasting colours enhance the image and convey an array thoughts in each individual, which makes the photo even more surreal.
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Stage And Screen
Stage and screen quickly took off in popularity as it acted as a distraction from the approach of World War II. Theatre and cinema offered victims escapism, and as a result Horst began to photograph illustrious celebrities, both in costume and their accustomed apparel. The piece to the right consists of 3 main parts. Firstly, a dull atmosphere created by the combinations of grey, secondly the actress herself and finally the lighting which is focused on her face. This has the effect of emphasising the woman's feelings as it is only lit in one area. Her mundane expressions may convey a reaction to how most were feeling in this time period.
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Patterns from Nature
In 1946, Horst released his second book, 'Patterns from Nature' which came out a surprise to most as it averted from Horst's ordinary style of celebrities and fashion. He took them across North America including New York's botanical gardens, forests of New England, Mexico and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The photography to the left shows an object from nature being mirrored and repeated. By overlapping and using symmetry on the image gives off an effect of being three dimensional. Horst often enjoyed to venture away from their usual art and focus on the less stereotypical styles of art at that time, which was also respected by other photographers.
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Fashion in Colour
The advances in technology around the 1930's meant colour photos were quickly appearing onto the scene in photography. Horst was quick to react and produced few but also iconic, colour photos for front covers of Vogue magazine. For example, to the right pictures a woman dress in red and white with a faded blue backdrop. This combination of colours works very well as they contrast heavily bringing out the models beauty and fashion (extremely important for a fashion magazine). This is also emphasised by the lighting, which is from above and focused in the main direction of movement in the photo (bottom left to top right).
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Others
The V&A museum included other artists and photographers work such as Anna Atkins, Edward Weston or in this case Irving Penn. This piece titled 'Playing Card' (left) along with other creations by Penn can be describe as a still life (arrangements of inanimate objects). However, I feel the playing card 7 of spades is often considered a useless or worthless card as an individual, furthermore when burnt or made dirty increases it's unimportance and it is for this reason why enlarging it makes it more meaningful and possibly arguing it may no longer be described as a still life because in a way it is no longer inanimate when given characteristics of importance and has influential qualities on others.
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