The Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa in Getaria, Balenciaga’s birthplace in Spain, presents the exhibition Vivre sa vie – Georges Dambier et la mode. Anabela Becho is the exhibition curator.
In the late 1940s, in the hopeful atmosphere of the post-war years, Paris reclaimed its position as the world capital of fashion, and haute couture became one of France’s leading industries.
Haute couture experienced a true golden age, shaped by the creative mastery of the fashion houses that would lay the foundations of modern femininity: Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Givenchy, Fath…
These great names not only dominated the Parisian scene — they also shaped the destiny of fashion on a global scale. Their creations were reproduced, reinterpreted and disseminated through magazines, department stores and international clientele, as haute couture and its influence became a cultural and economic driving force.
The magazine ELLE, founded in 1945 by Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, conveyed the image of an emancipated woman in constant evolution — one that ran clearly counter to the fashion press of the time.
The entry of photographer Georges Dambier (1925–2011) into the exclusive world of haute couture was marked by two women: Françoise Foucault, a young model he would later marry, and Lazareff herself, who launched his career in fashion photography through to its peak in the 1950s and 60s.
Dambier, with his pioneering approach, knew how to break the codes of studio photography by taking models out into the street, liberating them from their rigid poses and stereotyped attitudes, while never abandoning a rigorous and sublime technical execution. Paris became his studio of choice, and the Place Vendôme, Montmartre, the Champs-Élysées, the Rue de la Paix and the Seine became his favourite stages for the trend he himself named Couture en mouvement.
The vibrant and curious spirit of Georges Dambier, the avant-garde vision of Hélène Gordon-Lazareff and the democratisation of travel in the 1950s formed a perfect alliance to give shape to the concept of the tourist-photographer. Dambier produced fashion editorials for ELLE set in far-flung destinations such as Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, Brazil, the French Antilles, Tahiti and Ceylon, where the free-spirited, travelling woman played the central role.
In his work, women become the central and unquestionable axis. Influenced by cinema and the aesthetics of the Nouvelle Vague, Dambier captures a beauty that reflects a powerful woman transcending the ephemeral: vibrant, luminous and profoundly timeless.
The exhibition project takes its title from Jean-Luc Godard’s existentialist film Vivre sa vie (1962). Just like Nana, the main character played by Anna Karina, all the beautiful women photographed by Dambier lived their lives in freedom and without inhibition, disrupting the conventions of a world in which men were still predominant.
Fashion and photography have always been powerful vehicles for travelling through time and memory. The exhibition “Vivre Sa Vie. Georges Dambier et la Mode” is an invitation to immerse oneself in the world of Parisian haute couture of the 1950s, guided by the singular eye of the French photographer.
The exhibition is presented in the rooms of the Aldamar palace and organised as a pathway connecting the display of the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum collection, Technique, Material and Form, and the temporary exhibition dedicated to the ties between Balenciaga and Givenchy, The Givenchiaga Family.
The culminating point of the journey is a discourse centred on the golden age of haute couture, with the final perspective of the fashion press: a vision constructed by editors, interpreted by photographers and embodied by models, which translates and projects the fashion of the moment into society.
Anabela Becho is curator of the exhibition ; a fashion historian and exhibition curator, she works in close collaboration with Guillaume Dambier, curator of the Georges Dambier Photos collection.
The 77 selected photographs are organised around seven major themes representative of his work and of the society of the time, with sections dedicated to Balenciaga and Givenchy: Scénario : La photographie de Mode révélée, Réelle et Surréaliste, Balenciaga vu par Dambier, Le premier défilé d’Hubert de Givenchy, Esprit couture, Une femme dans la ville, Invitation au voyage and Le soleil que c’est bon.
“Georges Dambier’s photography shows us a renewed haute couture, seen through the prism of a profoundly modern fashion. In the work of this French photographer, time and memory intertwine with Parisian couture and its traditions, enriching an essential testimony to one of the golden ages in the history of fashion” —Anabela Becho, exhibition curator.
Vivre sa vie – Georges Dambier et la mode
Through 13 December 2026
Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa
Aldamar Parkea 6
20808 Getaria, Spain
T +34 943 008 840
www.cristobalbalenciagamuseoa.com
The work of George Dambier is represented by:
Michael Hoppen Gallery
10 Portland Rd.
London W11 4LA, Royaume-Uni
www.michaelhoppengallery.com
Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave, #A1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
www.peterfetterman.com
Holden Luntz Gallery
332 Worth Avenue
Palm Beach, FL 33480
www.holdenluntz.com
