Book review

It may be the most extraordinary creative partnership in the history of photography. The master, George Hoyningen-Huene and his pupil, companion and life long friend, Horst P. Horst (actually Horst Bohrmann, but as an American resident at the time of war, you would have changed your name too).

The Baron (Huene’s father had been the chief equerry to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia) and the young Horst met in the late ’20s, with Huene having been Paris Vogue’s Chief Photographer since 1926; an immediate attraction saw Horst become Huene’s photographic assistant. Horst’s photographic work began to be published in 1932 and Huene’s influence is palpable. When Huene blew off Vogue in a tiff in 1937, preferring to spend increasing amounts of time at the vacation home the two had built in Tunisia, Harper’s Bazaar snapped him up and Horst segued into his still warm spot at Vogue.

So you had the two best fashion magazines of the time – French Vogue and Harper’s – with the two greatest fashion photographers of the time. And the style they created – it’s often hard to tell Huene’s work from Horst’s – was to last until the 1950s when a brilliant, young British photographer named Norman Parkinson took fashion photography out of the studio onto the streets.

The cover picture of this magnificent book is of a lovely Jessica Tandy, every pore of her perfect complexion exposed. My favorite is the picture of Joan Crawford, demonized in a witch-like black number, and doubtless happy with the result. Horst had that way of getting below the surface of his famous subjects, unknown to them – note the backdrop, a huge photograph of Greek antiquities from Horst’s collection:

No wonder that Huene left his photography collection to Horst in his will. If you love the work of Irving Penn as much as I (Penn married Lisa Fonssagrives in the 1950s, a favorite model both pre- and post-war for both men) check out the photography of Horst and Huene to see just how they influenced modern ways of seeing.

The book is an essential in any photographer’s collection.

Book review

While Cecil Beaton was the ‘go to’ photographer at British Vogue in the 1930s, his counterpart at French Vogue was the aristocratic and temperamental George Hoyningen-Huene. (Cecil was temperamental but, try as he might, no aristocrat).

Where Beaton’s tastes tended to the frou-frou, Huene’s were solidly based in Greek classicism, as the wonderful pictures on display here show. His fascination with Greek sculpture and architecture is everywhere to be seen in his photographs, which are marvels of careful composition and lighting. The most reproduced is probably this one from his bathing costume series. The author William Ewing does a great job of explaining exactly how this picture was made (you will be amazed and I’m not telling!) and when you realize that the male model is none other than Huene’s long time companion and ace pupil Horst P. Horst, well, it’s icing on the cake.

Published some ten years ago in paperback, this book remains available from Amazon. When I tell you that all of Huene’s negatives went up in a house fire and the ones here are reproduced from prints, your heart may sink. No need. The quality of the reproductions is fine, including some dazzling color plates – I’m guessing on early Kodachrome – and the book is an absolute essential for anyone interested in the development of twentieth century photography (I almost wrote ‘fashion photography’ but Huene’s work is far more than that).

As for the equally wonderful work of Horst, well, more of him later.

Huene was also a major influence on the Vogue photographer John Rawlings, whom you can read more about here.

Book review

A photographer whose vision matches that of the best, but with none of their technical limitations, Ilse Bing deserves the renaissance her work is currently enjoying. Like Cartier-Bresson she did her best work in the thirties and, like him, insisted on using the small negative Leica, even using it exclusively in her studio advertising work.

From the cover photo to the colophon, this is one splendid display of the work of a great pioneering photographer. Like Kertesz and Cartier-Bresson, there is the wonder at all things new, the joy of discovering the sheer liberating qualities of a portable, small and fast snapshot camera. Just check the picture of Greta Garbo – I’m not telling the story here! You need this book.

Everything about this book, available from Amazon, is special. Whether the great photography, the impeccable reproductions, the erudite and well written essay by Larisa Dryansky – well, the whole production exudes quality, style and perfection. The quality Bing managed to extract from the poor monochrome films of the time has to be seen to be believed. I have not encountered so exciting a book of photography in ages, and it has replaced my well worn copy of Cartier-Bressons’s ‘The Man, the Image and the World’ as the ‘book on display’ in the ancestral home.

Book review

Taken in moderation, a sip here, a nibble there, these sixties diaries of Cecil Beaton are a blast to read. A sort of cross between the National Enquirer and the Tatler. Indiscreet, vicious, bitchy, funny, warm spirited, mean, generous, spiteful, the full panoply of human emotions, both good and base, is on parade for all to see here. And Beaton is rarely without his camera, conjuring up some new piece of fluff for all to enjoy.

If you like this sort of thing, and I wouldn’t put it on the recommended reading list without at least some prior exposure to his earlier, less gossipy writing, it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Book review

This slim volume has been on my bookshelf for some ten years now, a gift when it was first published. Amazingly, it remains in print, which says something for the appeal of these light-as-air sunny snaps from a great French amateur photographer who did his best work in the 1930s.

This collection makes for a pleasant way to spend an hour or so on a sun filled Sunday afternoon. Nothing deep here, just pure confection, and worth it for that fact alone.