Guy Bourdin A Message For You

Description

With the eye of a painter Guy Bourdin created images containing fascinating stories, compositions and colours. Using fashion photography as his medium, Bourdin explored the provocative and the sublime with a relentless perfectionism and sharp humour. Famed for his suggestive narratives and surreal aesthetics, Bourdin radically broke conventions of commercial photography and in the process captured the imagination of a generation. The late 1970s, recognised as the high note of his career, is the focal point of this new edition, which combines in one book the two volumes of the original 2006 publication. The first part of "A Message for You" shows the legendary, nearly forgotten images and rarely seen variants of a single model, Nicolle Meyer. She appeared in over thirty of Bourdins famous campaigns for Charles Jourdan and in iconic French Vogue editorials. The second part of the book explores Bourdins pictorial landscape, a collage of images that maps his artistic vision. The texts, Polaroids, poems, sketches and contact sheets unfold through Nicolle Meyers memories and capture moments of Bourdins work in progress. The career of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin (19281991) spans over three decades. He worked for international magazines such as French, Italian and British Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, and made advertising campaigns for Charles Jourdan, Chanel, Issey Miyake and Gianni Versace among others. Bourdins awards include the Grand Prix National de la Photographie, and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York. His work is held in prestigious museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Jeu de Paume in Paris and the National Museum of China. Steidl published Bourdins "In Between" in 2010.