Guy Bourdin’s vivid, narrative-infused work placed him at the vanguard of fashion photography for a career that spanned four decades. From his first provocative editorial feature in 1955, capturing haute couture alongside butchered cow heads, Guy Bourdin pushed the limits of fashion photography into foreign territory.
In Between delves into that career, charting the course of his artistic development from the 1950s into the 1980s with over 200 exceptional images in black and white and color. This monograph reassembles many of the original editorial layouts as they were published in magazines such as French Vogue, British Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar, offering a new and illuminating critical context in the process. Guy Bourdin tailored his compositions to the constraints of the printed page both conceptually and graphically, and the mirror motif so central in his work finds its formal counterpart in the doubleness of the magazine spread. Layout and design become powerful metaphors for the photographic medium, engaging the eye and with it, the mind.
In Between was conceived and edited by Shelly Verthime, whose unflagging devotion and research have resulted in an unparalleled familiarity with the photographer’s oeuvre. It is the second publication in Steidldangin’s Guy Bourdin library. A Message For You, published in 2006, explored the author’s collaboration with model/muse Nicolle Meyer in the form of an exquisite, two-volume coffret. With In Between, Steidl again offers a roll-up-your-sleeves guide to his visual vocabulary.
December 11, 2010
