Papier glacé

Constantin Joffé, American Vogue, September 1945. © 1945 Condé Nast

A century of fashion photography at CONDÉ NAST

1st March - 25 May 2014

Elegance and seduction, excellence and artistic sense make the spirit of Condé Nast. For a century, the publishing conglomerate - editor of magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour or W - plays a role determining in the field of the fashion photography.

The exhibition Papier glacé, un siècle de photographie de mode chez Condé Nast  ("Coming into Fashion, a Century of Photography at Condé Nast" ) draws on the archives of Condé Nast New York, Paris, Milan and London, bringing together some 150 mostly original prints from leading fashion photographers from 1918 through to the present day.  

The Editors in chief and Artistic Directors of Vogue, Glamour and, more recently, W, have always had a nose for immense talents, playing a decisive role in renewing fashion photography. The very first photographer employed by the group was Baron Adolf de Meyer, to be followed by Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst, Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld and Irving Penn. Then, from the 1950s onwards, Guy Bourdin, William Klein, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Miles Aldridge...

The exhibition is an opportunity to rediscover the work of some ninety photographers at the dawn of their careers. Organised by theme, it highlights the ties between these photographers who, from one glossy page to the next, have shaped the identity and history of Vogue. The dialogue flows in the most natural of fashions between the elegant interiors of Baron de Meyer and Henry Clarke, the narrative staging of Cecil Beaton and Deborah Turbeville, the snaps of Norman Parkinson and William Klein, the visual experiments of Erwin Blumenfeld and Paolo Roversi, the surrealist games of Man Ray, John Rawlings and Guy Bourdin, the glorified bodies of Horst P. Horst , Herb Ritts and Albert Watson, and the portraits of models by Irving Penn, Peter Lindbergh and Corinne Day.

The photographs are accompanied by some fifteen haute couture items from the collections of the Palais Galliera. There are also two reading rooms with fifty or so magazines in display cases and a number of screens where you can “leaf through” some outstanding features from the publications of the Condé Nast group. And last but not least, contemporary films projected on a large screen outline the possible future   of fashion photography.

After Berlin, Milan and Edinburgh, the journey continues to Zurich, West Palm Beach, Fort Worth and Tokyo.


This exhibition is organed by the FOUNDATION FOR THE EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis.
In partnership with VOGUE PARIS, METRONEWS, PARIS PREMIÈRE