Guy Bourdin (2 December 1928 – 29 March 1991), was a French artist and

fashion photographer Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio ...

known for his provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' as well as other publications including '' Harper's Bazaar''. He shot ad campaigns for Chanel,

Charles Jourdan Charles Jourdan (1883 – 12 February 1976) was a French fashion designer known best for his designs of women's shoes starting in 1919. His name reached its greatest reputation in the years since his death under the leadership of his sons, firs ...

Pentax is a brand name used primarily by the Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for DSLR cameras, lenses, sport optics (including binoculars and rifle scopes), and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corporatio ...

and

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the business. It became a div ...

. His work is collected by important institutions including

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London, MoMA,

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

and

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

. The first retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London in 2003, and then toured the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

in Melbourne, Australia, and the

Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume Jeu de Paume ( en, Real Tennis Court) is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale ...

in Paris. The

is permanently exhibiting a part of its collection (one of the largest) with works made between 1950 and 1955. He is considered one of the best-known

photographers A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

of fashion and advertising of the second half of the 20th century. He set the stage for a new kind of fashion photography. "While conventional fashion images make beauty and clothing their central elements, Bourdin’s photographs offer a radical alternative."

Life and career

Bourdin was born 2 December 1928 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. His parents separated when he was an infant and he was sent to live with his paternal grandparents who owned a house in Normandy. His grandparents were also owners of a restaurant in Paris called Brasserie Bourdin. When his father, who was only 18 at the time of his birth, remarried, Bourdin was again under his care. Apparently Bourdin only saw his mother once when she arrived at the Brasserie to present him with a gift. Thereafter, his only communication with his mother took place in the side-by-side phone booths of the Brasserie where his participation would be ensured by a locked door. At the age of eighteen Bourdin embarked on a cycling tour in Provence during which he met art-dealer Lucien Henry. Bourdin passed six months living at Henry's house where he concentrated on painting and drawing until it was time for his mandatory military service. Bourdin was first introduced to photography during his service in the Air Force. Stationed in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

(1948–49), Bourdin received his initial photographic training, working as an aerial photographer. When he returned to Paris after his service, he supported himself with a number of menial jobs, including as a salesman of camera lenses and also continued to paint, draw and take pictures. During this time he exhibited some of his drawings and in 1950 sought out the mentorship of American expatriate and prodigious

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

. Bourdin was turned away from Man Ray's door six times by his wife and on the seventh finally succeeding in gaining the artist's company when Man Ray himself answered the door and invited Bourdin in. Bourdin had indeed succeeded in gaining the confidence of Man Ray, who later wrote the catalogue for Bourdin's first exhibition in 1952 after accepting him as a protégé. Bourdin made his first exhibition of drawings and paintings at Galerie, Rue de la Bourgogne, Paris. His first photographic exhibition was in 1953. He exhibited under the pseudonym "Edwin Hallan" in his early career. His first fashion shots were published in the February 1955 issue of ''

Vogue Paris The French edition of ''Vogue'' magazine, formerly called ''Vogue Paris'', is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1920. History 1920–54 The French edition of ''Vogue'' was first issued on 15 June 1920, the first editor-in-chief b ...

''. As a contemporary of Helmut Newton, who also worked extensively for Vogue, Bourdin helped establish what contemporary photography is today. Newton observed, "Between him and me the magazine became pretty irresistible in many ways and we complemented each other. If he had been alone or I had been alone it wouldn't have worked." He continued to work for the magazine until the late 1980s. An editor of ''Vogue'' magazine introduced Bourdin to shoe designer

, who became his patron, and Bourdin shot Jourdan's ad campaigns between 1967 and 1981. His quirky anthropomorphic compositions, intricate '' mise-en-scene'' ads were recognised as distinctly Bourdin-esque and were always eagerly anticipated by the media. In 1985, Bourdin turned down the

Grand Prix National de la Photographie Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and comm ...

, awarded by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visua ...

, but his name is retained on the list of award winners. He died of cancer in 1991. According to

Manolo Blahnik Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez (; born 27 November 1942) is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand. Biography Blahnik was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canary Islands (Spain), to a Czech father ...

, Bourdin's creative legacy is so immense that his shoes will never be filled by another.

Style

Guy Bourdin was among the first to imagine fashion photographies that contained fascinating narratives, dramatic effects with intense color saturation, hyper-realism and cropped compositions while he established the idea that the product is secondary to the image. Bourdin's photographs are often richly sensual but also rely heavily on provocation and ability to shock. Bourdin configured a whole new visual vocabulary with which to associate the goods of haute-couture. The narratives were strange and mysterious, inspired by literature, cinema and art history. Evident through astute reading of his compositional and thematic presentation, Bourdin profited from the influence of a diverse collection of contemporaries: first and foremost, his mentor Man Ray, but also the photographer

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

, surrealist painters Magritte and Balthus, and Spanish surrealist filmmaker

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

Collections

Bourdin's work is held in the following public collections: *

, London: 27 works acquired in 2014 *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York * National Portrait Gallery, London *

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, New York City *

, Los Angeles, California *

, San Francisco, California * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, Texas * Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland *

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

, Detroit, Portrait of Kelly Williams at Académie Colarossi

Books

* ''Guy Bourdin.'' HNA, 2003. . * ''Exhibit A: Guy Bourdin.'' London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. . * ''Guy Bourdin.'' London: Phaidon, 2006. . * ''A Message For You.'' Göttingen:

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Ger ...

Dangin, 2006. . * ''Guy Bourdin (Stern Fotographie Portfolio).'' Hamburg: Stern, 2010. . Bilingual edition. * ''Guy Bourdin: Polaroids.'' Xavier Barral, 2010. . * ''Guy Bourdin: In Between.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. . * ''A Message For You.'' Göttingen: Steidl Dangin, 2013. . * ''Untouched.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2017. . * ''A Message For You.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2017. . * ''Guy Bourdin: The Portraits.'' Studio des Acacias: Mazarine, 2017. . * ''Guy Bourdin: Image Maker.'' Assouline, 2017. . * ''Guy Bourdin: Untouched.'' Steidl, 2017. .

Awards

* 1988: Infinity Award,

, New York, for his 1987 Chanel advertising campaign.

Solo exhibitions

* 1950 First exhibition of drawings and paintings at Galerie, Rue de Bourgogne, Paris. * 1952 Exhibition of photographs at Galerie 29, The catalogue includes an introduction by

. Paris. * 1953 Exhibition of photographs under the pseudonym "Edwin Hallan" at

Galerie Huit Galerie Huit was an art collective and gallery established by American artists in Paris in 1950. During the mid-twentieth century American artists traveled and lived in Paris to study and make art. Many of the male American artists were able ...

, Paris. * 1954 Exhibition of drawings at Galerie de Beaune, Paris. * 1955 Exhibition of drawings at Galerie des Amis des Arts, Paris. * 1955 Exhibition of paintings at Galerie Charpentier, Paris. * 1956 Exhibition of drawings at Galerie de Seine, Paris. * 1957 Exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Peter Deitsch Gallery, New York City. * 1961 Salon International du Portrait Photographie * 2003–2013 ''The Retrospective,''

, London; National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, 2004;

, Paris, 2004;

Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam or Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is a photography museum located at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The museum has four different exhibitions at any given time in which different photographic genres are shown, such as documen ...

(Foam), Amsterdam, 2004;

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...

, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2005;

National Art Museum of China The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC, ) is located at 1 Wusi Ave, Dongcheng District, Beijing, People's Republic of China. It is one of the largest art museums in China, and is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of Chin ...

, Beijing, China, 2005;

Shanghai Art Museum The Shanghai Art Museum () was an art museum in the city of Shanghai, China. In October 2012, the museum was rebranded as the China Art Museum when it moved to the China pavilion at Expo 2010 on the former Shanghai Expo 2010 lands. The Shanghai ...

, Shanghai, China, 2006;

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography The is an art museum concentrating on photography. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it was founded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and is in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest Tokyo. The museum al ...

, Tokyo, 2006; Daimaru Umeda Museum, Osaka, Japan, 2006;

KunstHausWien The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhib ...

, Vienna, Austria, 2008; FotoMuseum, Antwerp, Belgium, 2008;

Moscow House of Photography The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM; russian: link=no, Мультимедиа Арт Музей, Москва) is a Russian state museum dedicated to the presentation and development of contemporary art related to new multimedia technologies ...

, Moscow, 2009; Museu Brasileiro de Escultura (MuBE), São Paulo, Brazil, 2009; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto Alegre, Brazil 2011;

Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are iconic in style, with their open steel-and-glass structures. Their archi ...

, Hamburg, Germany, 2013. * 2006–2014 ''A Message For You,'' Phillips, New York City, 2006;

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...

, Venice, Italy, 2006; HSBC Foundation, Paris, 2006; Hollywood Centre, Hong Kong, 2007;

Today Art Museum The Today Art Museum is a museum located in Beijing. References {{authority control Museums in Beijing Art museums and galleries in China Art museums established in 2002 2002 establishments in China ...

, Beijing, 2007; Gallery Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy, 2009; Photography Festival, Cannes, France, 2009; Canal Isabel II, Madrid, 2010; Louise Alexander Gallery,

Porto Cervo Porto Cervo (; ) is an Italian seaside resort in northern Sardinia. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Arzachena, in the province of Sassari. Created by Prince Karim Aga Khan and various other investors, Porto Cervo is the main centre of Co ...

, Italy, 2014. * 2009 ''Ses films,''

Le Bon Marché Le Bon Marché (lit. "the good market", or "the good deal" in French; ) is a department store in Paris. Founded in 1838 and revamped almost completely by Aristide Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of the first modern department stores. It was ...

, Paris, 2009; 10 Corso Como, Seoul, South Korea. * 2010 ''In Between,'' French Consulate, New York City. * 2013 ''Guy Bourdin: Archives,'' Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy. * 2014 ''Guy Bourdin: Image Maker,'' Somerset House, London. * 2015 ''Guy Bourdin: Mise en abyme,''

Paris Photo Paris Photo is an annual international art fair dedicated to photography. It was founded in 1997, and is held in November at the Grand Palais exhibition hall and museum complex, located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement in Pari ...

, Louise Alexander Gallery, Paris. * 2015 ''Guy Bourdin: Avant Garde,'' Fotografiska, Stockholm. * 2016 ''Guy Bourdin: The Portraits,'' Studio des Acacias and Louise Alexander Gallery, Paris. * 2017 ''Guy Bourdin,'' solo show at Photo London 2017, Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy * 2017 ''Guy Bourdin,'' Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy * 2017 ''Guy Bourdin: Image Maker,'' Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin * 2017 ''Femininities - Guy Bourdin'', Maison Chloé, Paris * 2019 Campredon Art Center, Isle sur la Sorgue, France * 2019 Museum of Photography Charles Nègre, Nice, France

References

External links

*
Art Matters , An L.A. Fair Explores the Possibilities of Photography

Guy Bourdin: A fetish for fashion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourdin, Guy 1928 births 1991 deaths Photographers from Paris Fashion photographers French adoptees Artists from Paris Fetish photographers French contemporary artists