Photography, like fashion, constantly reinvents itself. The exhibition Papier glacé, un siècle de photographie de mode chez Condé Nast looks back at 100 years of fashion photography using images from the archives of the famous publisher of Vogue magazine, Condé Nast. The art historian and curator Nathalie Herschdorfer was given unprecedented access to the Condé Nast archives in New York, Paris, London and Milan. The exhibition features 150 photographs by the greatest fashion photographers from 1918 to the present day, giving viewers the unique opportunity to rediscover these iconic images which have left their mark of the history of fashion and its representation.
Sylvie Lécallier, who is responsible for the photography collection at the Palais Galliera, wanted to organize the exhibition thematically in order to show the influences the photographers had on each other. Dialogues are formed between the elegant interiors of Adolph de Meyer and Henry Clarke, the narrative staged photos of Cecil Beaton and Deborah Turbeville, the snapshots of Norman Parkinson and William Klein, the visual experiments of Erwin Blumenfeld and Paolo Roversi, the surrealist games of Man Ray, John Rawlings and Guy Bourdin, the bodies glorified by Horst P. Horst and Herb Ritts, and the portraits of Irving Penn, Peter Lindbergh and Corinne Day.
For its stop in Paris, the photographs are accompanied by a dozen articles of designer clothing from the collections of the Palais Galliera. The pieces by Jacques Doucet, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Christian Dior, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, Issey Miyake, Jeanne Lanvin and Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga follow the thematic structure of the exhibition. Fifty issues of magazines are displayed under glass, with screen allowing visitors to “flip through” Condé Nast publications. Finally, contemporary films projected onto large screens explore the possible future of fashion photography.
The exhibition Papier Glacé is produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/Paris/Lausanne. After Berlin, Milan, Edinburgh and Paris, the exhibition will move to Zurich, West Palm Beach, Fort Worth, Mexico and Tokyo.
EXHIBITION
Palais Galliera
Through May 25th, 2014
10, av. Pierre Ier de Serbie
75116 Paris
Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00 – 18:00
Thursdays, 10:00 – 21:00
Closed Mondays and holidays
