Horst P. Horst

Horst P. Horst (bornHorst Paul Albert Bormann; August 14, 1906 – November 18, 1999) was a German-Americanfashion photographer.^[1]

Horst P. Horst
Horst signing autographs in 1984
Born	Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann (1906-08-14)August 14, 1906 Weißenfels-an-der-Saale,German Empire (present-daySaxony-Anhalt, Germany)
Died	November 18, 1999(1999-11-18) (aged 93) Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States
Nationality	German American
Known for	Photography

Early life

edit

The younger of the sons, Horst was born inWeissenfels-an-der-Saale, Germany, to Klara (Schönbrodt) and Max Bohrmann. His father was a successful merchant. In his teens, he met dancer Evan Weidemann at the home of his aunt, and this aroused his interest inavant-garde art. In the late 1920s, Horst studied at HamburgKunstgewerbeschule, leaving there in 1930 to go to Paris^[2] to study under the architectLe Corbusier.^{[citation needed]}

Youth

edit

While in Paris, he befriended many people in the art community and visited many galleries. In 1930 he metVogue photographer BaronGeorge Hoyningen-Huene, a half-Baltic, half-American nobleman, and became his photographic assistant, occasional model, and lover.^[1] He traveled to England with him that winter. While there, they visited photographerCecil Beaton, who was working for theBritish edition ofVogue. In 1931, Horst began his association withVogue, publishing his first photograph in FrenchVogue in December of that year. It was a full-page advertisement showing a model in black velvet holding a Klytia scent bottle.^[3]

His first exhibition took place at La Plume d'Or in Paris in 1932. It was reviewed byJanet Flanner inThe New Yorker, and this review, which appeared after the exhibition ended, made Horst instantly prominent. Horst made a portrait ofBette Davis the same year, the first in a series of public figures he would photograph during his career. Within two years, he had photographedNoël Coward,Yvonne Printemps,Lisa Fonssagrives, CountLuchino Visconti di Madrone, DukeFulco di Verdura, BaronNicolas de Gunzburg, PrincessNatalia Pavlovna Paley,Daisy Fellowes,Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark,Cole Porter,Elsa Schiaparelli,Eve Curie, and others.

Horst rented an apartment in New York City in 1937, and while residing there metCoco Chanel, whom Horst called "the queen of the whole thing". He would photograph her fashions for three decades.^[4]

He metValentine Lawford, British diplomat in 1938, and they lived together until Lawford's death in 1991.^[5] Horst adopted a son, Richard J. Horst, whom they raised together.^[1]^[6]

In 1941, Horst applied for United Statescitizenship. In 1942, he passed an Army physical, and joined the Army on July 2, 1943. On October 21, he received his United States citizenship as Horst P. Horst. He became an Army photographer,^[1] with much of his work printed in the forces' magazineBelvoir Castle. In 1945, he photographed United States PresidentHarry S. Truman, with whom he became friends, and he photographed everyFirst Lady in the post-war period at the invitation of theWhite House. In 1947, Horst moved into his house inOyster Bay, New York. He designed the white stucco-clad building himself, the design inspired by the houses that he had seen in Tunisia during his relationship with Hoyningen-Huene.

Work

edit

Horst is best known for his photographs of women and fashion, but is also recognized for his photographs of interior architecture,still lifes, especially ones including plants, andenvironmental portraits. One of the great iconic photos of the 20th century is "TheMainbocher Corset" with its erotically charged mystery, captured by Horst inVogue’s Paris studio in 1939.^[7]^[5] Designers likeDonna Karan continue to use the timeless beauty of "The Mainbocher Corset" as an inspiration for their outerwear collections today. His work frequently reflects his interest insurrealism and his regard of the ancient Greek ideal of physical beauty.

His method of work typically entailed careful preparation for the shoot, with the lighting and studio props (of which he used many) arranged in advance. His instructions to models are remembered as being brief and to the point. His published work uses lighting to pick out the subject; he frequently used four spotlights, often one of them pointing down from the ceiling. Only rarely do his photos include shadows falling on the background of the set. Horst rarely, if ever, used filters. While most of his work is in black and white, much of his color photography includes largely monochromatic settings to set off a colorful fashion. Horst's color photography did include documentation of society interior design, well noted in the volumeHorst Interiors. He photographed a number of interiors designed byRobert Denning andVincent Fourcade ofDenning & Fourcade and often visited their homes inManhattan andLong Island. After taking the photograph, Horst generally left it up to others to develop, print, crop, and edit his work.

One of his most famous portraits is ofMarlene Dietrich, taken in 1942.^[7]^[5] She protested the lighting that he had selected and arranged, but he used it anyway. Dietrich liked the results and subsequently used a photo from the session in her own publicity.

Later life

edit

In the 1960s, encouraged byVogue editorDiana Vreeland, Horst began a series of photos illustrating the lifestyle of internationalhigh society which includedConsuelo Vanderbilt,Marella Agnelli,Gloria Guinness, BaronessPauline de Rothschild and BaronPhilippe de Rothschild,Helen of Greece and Denmark, Baroness Geoffroy de Waldner, Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg,Lee Radziwill,Duke of Windsor andDuchess of Windsor,Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans andLady Jacquetta Eliot, Countess of St Germans,Antenor Patiño,Annette Reed,^[8]Oscar de la Renta andFrançoise de Langlade,Desmond Guinness and Princess Henriette Marie-Gabrielle von Urach,Andy Warhol,Nancy Lancaster,Yves Saint Laurent,Doris Duke,Emilio Pucci,Cy Twombly,Billy Baldwin,Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,Amanda Burden,Paloma Picasso and ComtesseJacqueline de Ribes. The articles were written by the photographer's longtime companion, Valentine Lawford, a former English diplomat. From this point until nearly the time of his death, Horst spent most of his time traveling and taking photographs. In the mid-1970s, he began working forHouse & Garden magazine as well as forVogue.

Horst's last photograph forBritishVogue was in 1991 withPrincess Michael of Kent, shown against a background of tapestry and wearing a tiara belonging to her mother-in-law,Princess Marina, whom he had photographed in 1934.^[3] He died at his home inPalm Beach Gardens, Florida at 93 years of age.^[9]