Guy Bourdin

A Painter with a Camera

A Photographic Retrospective

Guy Bourdin is considered to be one of the most daring and innovative artists in the world of visual culture of the 20th century. With intense sensibility, he was able to touch generations of readers by creating a moment of magic, using the most transient form of expression — the glossy magazine page. A singular artist with a unique perception on arts, fashion, advertising and life, he was responsible for the groundbreaking turning point in the world of image making.

Spending his formative years in post war France, within a conservative social climate full of taboos and censorship, Guy Bourdin was fascinated by Edward Weston, Man Ray and Magritte. He assimilated Surrealism in its broader sense, especially the daring liberty of expression. A Creator with immense cultural knowledge and multiple sources of inspiration, yet artistically he manifests a unique vision with a gaze of a maverick.

Starting his artistic quest, by the early 1950s, Guy Bourdin took photographs of landscapes, stills, and passers by. His first commissioned work was in February 1955 for Vogue Paris, where he successfully created fascinating images in terms of storytelling, compositions and colors. Using fashion photography as his medium, he sent out his message, one that was difficult to decode, exploring the realms between the absurd and the sublime. Famed for his suggestive narratives, impeccable decors and surreal aesthetics, he radically broke conventions of commercial photography with a relentless perfectionism and sharp humor.

Guy Bourdin’s vision successfully generated interest for fashion photography that took precedent over fashion as a product. Given total creative freedom and with uncompromising artistic ethic, Guy Bourdin captured the imagination of a whole generation. The late 1970s, recognized as the highest point in his career, is the period when Guy Bourdin brought a visionary take on glamour and intrigue to the pages of the world’s most sophisticated magazines with his meticulously crafted images. He was masterful in his creation of images within the confines of magazines. Faced with the challenge to entice the reader with yet another pair of shoes or one more dress he successfully constructed images loaded with implicit narratives, tapping into the conscious and subconscious fantasies and desires of the viewer.

For over 30 years, Guy Bourdin’s photographs pushed the limits of what constituted contemporary fashion photography and continue to inspire and excite today.

The photographs slides and films in this exhibition are all by Guy Bourdin (1928–1991).

All colour photographs are digital photographs, printed in 2003, by Pascal Dangin of Box Ltd, and are from the Art collection, The Estate of Guy Bourdin, 2004, unless otherwise indicated.

Shelly Verthime
2005