When he was hired as assistant photographer by Fairchild Publications in their Paris office, Cédric Dordevic did not know much about the fashion world. The young man of twenty-two who claimed a short experience in artist portraiture, soon found himself absorbed by the Parisian life , discovering the universe of a certain type of journalism, populated with artists, models, and celebrities. From then on, holding a press card, admitted to every event, Cédric Dordevic photographed everything that mattered in Paris for the Women’s Wear Daily and W magazine columns. John Fairchild, who imposed his views on illustrations that he wanted unique, refraining from using easy solutions, he appreciated these images that spoke of high fashion, and that offered readers the extravagant intimacy of fashion’s creators.
This adventure would receive recognition from 1990 to 1998, an eight year term during which Cédric Dordevic estimates to have fully explored the Parisian fashion scene. He went to live abroad in India for a change of scenery, if not of career. In Bombay, he participated to the first issues of ELLE India, whose development he followed for two years before going on several trips to Africa and Asia, of which he took photos later distributed by Agence VU’ or published in the magazine Têtu.
John Fairchild died in 2015, taking with him his passion for fashion’s representation. While digitizing his negatives of the Parisian period to develop his website, Cédric Dordevic realized that all these images went beyond anecdote and gossip and that together they evoked a unique era, both near and gone. photographed the subtle and offbeat eye of a paparazzi uncomfortable in this perpetually festive fresco, these eight years, are giving today the contrasts of elegance and excess, arrogance and tenderness, with a foray in the frenetic atmosphere of the couture studios right before fashion shows.
Hervé Le Goff
Hervé Le Goff is a journalist, art critic, and French essayist specialized in photography. He lives and works in Paris.
Cédric Dordevic, Les années W
DFrom February 27 through April 28, 2018
Galerie Patrick Gutknecht
78 rue de Turenne
75003 Paris
France
