Horst: Photographer of Style

Publis­hed to accom­pa­ny a head­line exhi­bi­ti­on at the V&A, this book is the defi­ni­ti­ve cele­bra­ti­on of the extra­or­di­na­ry pho­to­gra­phic care­er of Horst P. Horst (1906–99). One of Vogues most pro­li­fic and crea­ti­ve con­tri­bu­tors, Horst worked in Paris and New York, pho­to­gra­phing fashions by lea­ding desi­gners and making por­traits of the cen­tu­rys stars. His important work made out­side the realms of fashion pho­to­gra­phy is also inclu­ded here. Horst excel­led at nude stu­dies and still-life pho­to­gra­phy, fusing Hel­le­nic and Sur­rea­list motifs and drawing inspi­ra­ti­on from artists such as Sal­va­dor Dali. He cap­tu­red the exqui­si­te sim­pli­ci­ty of natu­ral forms — plants, shells and stones — trans­forming them into abs­tract kalei­do­scopic col­la­ges. His litt­le-known tra­vel pho­to­graphs reve­al his fasci­na­ti­on with anci­ent cul­tures, land­s­capes and archi­tec­tu­re and, in later years, Horst pho­to­gra­phed some of the worlds most beau­ti­ful homes for Vogue and House & Gar­den. His work epi­to­mi­zes the inter­con­nec­tions bet­ween art, fashion and high society.Today, Horsts pho­to­graphs con­ti­nue to inspi­re art direc­tors and pho­to­graph­ers, and he ranks along­side Irving Penn and Richard Ave­don as one of the gre­at mas­ters of twen­tieth-cen­tu­ry photography.