The photographer of the species is deadlier than the male

April 15, 2003 7:28 PM

Guy Bourdin, Photographer Extraordinaire, 1928-1991 He was the most controversial of the not-really-fashion fashion photographers. "Too sexy, too necro, too sado, too gratuitously violent, too misogynist", they said. Now he's on the verge of a big retrospective, opening Saturday at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; being exhibited at leading galleries; lauded in the NYT and the object of a website as excellent as the one in my main link. [ These last 3 links go directly to the portfolios.] I just hope - being old enough to remember being severely scolded by my parents for collecting the photographs he published in my generation's vademecum, the since-degraded French magazine Photo - that these far more politically correct times (specially in increasingly intolerant, hygienist and puritanical America) won't prove to be even less welcoming of his work than his own times were.[ *sigh* Probably still NSFW, though most of his work was flipped through by our mothers in Vogue magazine more than 20 years ago...]
posted by MiguelCardoso (3 comments total)

Very cool, Miguel. Thanks! Bourdin had his own, much-copied, style. I was mildly surprised to see that he was born in 1928, but I guess coolness knows no age. Even the more cliche of his pictures are interesting to look at - he had a very good eye for lighting textures. Nice post.

[this is good]
posted by biscotti at 8:12 PM on April 15, 2003

[this is good] - thanks Miguel.
posted by plep at 4:58 AM on April 16, 2003

No doubt the folks over at About Face hate him - then again, they don't seem to like much of anyone in the fashion or advertising world. :)
posted by soulhuntre at 8:14 AM on April 16, 2003