For the first time, Leica exhibits an artistic vision of fashion born in the late 80s and initiated by Gérard Musy, Swiss photographer represented by the gallery Esther Woerdehoff; backstage photography. In 1987, Gérard Musy was 28 years old and immersed himself in a merry Parisian world, free and effervescence, to seize the grace and the lightness. His images in Black and White illustrate remarkably his art of tight composition with the open frame of Leica M. The backstage photos are punctuated by a selection of images in rich and deep colors taken among others for the account of the famous magazines Jardin des Modes and Harper’s Bazaar.
This exhibition is an invitation to revisit with nostalgia a pivotal period of fashion photography.
In 1986, Gerard Musy, while writing his memoir in History of Art at the University of Geneva on photographer Robert Frank, often visited Paris where he discovered fashion shows and the Palace. The night and fashion world is one. All the models go out at night with the outfits of the New Creators, who rediscover themselves the body and its freedom through various fetishist materials: Mugler’s vinyl, Gaultier’s latex, Montana’s leather and finally Alaia’s fine knit.
Youth are thirsty for carelessness, madness, transgression, laughter. There is a rediscovery of the body, black and white, graphics, fashion, the night: a fun energy made up of comics and music clips. The night with its vital energy is the great reinvention of the 80s.
Exhibition from 02.06 to 04.04.2020
Espace Photographique du Leica Store
105-109 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore – 75008 Paris
