Horst, says Anna Wintour in the book that accompanies this comprehensive exhibition, “was the Mario Testino of his day . . . He made everyone look beautiful, flawless and alluring.” The description could apply to this German émigré’s photographs (he became an American in 1943), particularly the final word. Unlike many photographers known for their fashion work, Horst’s images exude warmth and sensuality, their drama (he became known for his virtuoso use of light and shadow) tempered by a joyfulness and often a dose of humour. A woman in a swimsuit balances a beach ball on her toes; in a satirical take on modern beauty, a model wrapped in wires undergoes a range of alarming treatments.
Not for him the cool and aloof. He didn’t much like Joan Crawford, of whom he said: “You can’t do anything with this type of girl — no contact whatsoever. The face — very strong — it’s all make-up, a mask not a face.” And he was dismissive of Marlene Dietrich: “She projected sex but she was not sexy.” A gay man with his own beguiling style (a picture taken in 1931 by his then-partner, the photographer George Hoyningen-Huene, of Horst wearing a pair of lederhosen is heart-stoppingly gorgeous) and a superb aesthetic sense, he knew how women could be sexy in the way that Jean Paul Gaultier knows it — the way that women know it.
Women loved posing for him. Irving Penn admired Horst’s skill with models and Lisa Fonssagrives, a former dance teacher (and eventually Penn’s wife), said of Horst: “I became a model because he made me one.” Their collaborations included some of Horst’s most accomplished nudes, though they were considered too risqué for his employer, Vogue.
Among his nudes are two odalisques inspired by Ingres. Horst referenced art constantly, haunting the Louvre and incorporating elements of classical architecture and statuary into his studio sets, and he often used the device of a figure posed within a frame. But it was surrealism that inspired him the most; he collaborated with Dalí on a number of occasions. His portrait of the painter, eyes closed, is one of the few that looks past the manic self-image to give a glimpse of the man behind the ridiculous moustache.
This show, a survey of Horst’s 60-year career, also incorporates lesser-known work: evocative travel images from trips to the Middle East with his life partner, the British diplomat Valentine Lawford; images of nature and abstracted photographic constructions; some extraordinary male nudes that reminded me of fractionally later works by Bill Brandt. There’s also a fabulous interactive display of interior shots for which Horst and Lawford visited the homes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and others, as well as his own amazing house, which he shared with Lawford in Oyster Bay, Long Island. You exit feeling — or wishing — you knew him.
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