Guy Bourdin

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Guy Bourdin (1928–1991) created some of the most challenging and seductive fashion photography of the last century. He worked for French Vogue for over 30 years, from 1955–1987, and his images filled the pages of international fashion magazines during the 1970s and 1980s in groundbreaking campaigns for Charles Jourdan, Bloomingdales and Dior. His high-glamour, yet often surreal work revolutionized the genre of fashion photography, presenting fashion as the luxurious embellishment rather than the subject of his photographs, which foreground dark fantasies of lust, consumption and desire. Bourdin’s legacy can still be seen in the work of photographers such as Stephen Meisel and Helmut Newton. This accessible monograph is the perfect introduction to his work.Alison Gingeras is an international curator and writer based in Paris. She held the post of Curator of Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Collections at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1999 to 2004) and was a member of the curatorial team at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York from 1995 to 1999. She is on the editorial committee of Tate.Etc. magazine and has written dozens of exhibition catalogue texts and essays on contemporary artists.’A damn good storyteller who condensed carefully orchestrated narratives into a single photograph that both shocked and fascinated his audience … Capturing every possible sexual taboo, his images consequently changed the face of ’70s and ’80s fashion photography.’ (i-D)

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