Product Description

Guy Bourdin was born in Paris in 1928 and received his first photographic training whilst performing military service in Senegal in 1948-9. His photographs were first shown in Paris in 1952, the catalogue for which exhibition included an introduction by Man Ray, and he began working for French Vogue in 1954. Inspired by Surrealism, and specifically the work of Man Ray, with whom he struck up a relationship, Bourdin rejected the descriptive roles of photography in favour of an exploration of the medium's capacity for the divergent. He broke with tradition in that he remained above all an artist and an inventor, somewhat in the manner of Man Ray. Along with certain American photographers, notably Edward Weston, Bourdin recognized a concern with formal perfection and extremely high finish that became his own objective, one perfectly adapted to the deceptive sophistication of fashion imagery, the terrain in which he developed his ideas for over thirty years. At French Vogue, Bourdin demanded and was allowed unique editorial control and amazingly he extended this to his principal client in advertising, the shoe company Charles Jourdan, who first commissioned him in the 1960s. Bourdin's approach to campaigns reflected a distinct change for advertising in this period. Where it had once been dominated by selling the intangibles of class, alongside the merchandise, Bourdin rejected the 'product shot' in favour of atmospheric, often surreal tableaux and suggestions of narrative. Bourdin was not alone in demystifying the object, but he was the most radical in his approach. The impact of the imagery of Guy Bourdin on both commercial and fine art photography continues to resonate today, Bourdin made radical changes both in the style and the meaning of commercial imagery. His fashion shoots are mysterious, hypnotic, surreal, exposing the true and unnerving nature of desire. He shows that, within the context of fashion, it is rarely the product that compels us. It is the image - carefully staged narrative of sexual fantasy, the quest for the unattainable, the suggestion of danger - that stimulates consumer desire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121816 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

About the Author
Alison Gingeras is an international curator and writer based in Paris. She held the post of Curator of Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Collections at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1999 to 2004) and was a member of the curatorial team at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York from 1995 to 1999. She is on the editorial committee of Tate.Etc. magazine and has written dozens of exhibition catalogue texts and essays on contemporary artists. Author's residence: Paris

Customer Reviews

Great value influential advertising photography
Guy Bourdin does not produce nice images: these are images of evocative power that cross commercial and art borders. He is/was an extremely influential advertising photographer who was given briefs that enabled him to apply his artistic vision to the creation of images to fulfil commercial objectives. Now that's already an interesting ethical dilemma, and whatever side of the debate you are on you would find this book important.

Texts on semiotics in advertising (see for example Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertising) frequently cite his work, because his images are so richly layered and textured, seeming to say one thing while they evoke several others. Some of his most famous and pioneering work was for Charles Jourdain, the shoe designer, in which the shoes appear as characters in dramatic scenarios peopled by sensual women in strange story lands.