Cinematic work from French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin!

Curated by Jason Forrest

Total Runtime: 0:08:57

Guy Louis Bourdin (December 2, 1928 in Paris – March 29, 1991 in Paris), born Guy Louis Banarès, was a French fashion photographer.

Bourdin was one of the best known photographers of fashion and advertising of the second half of the 20th century. He shared Helmut Newton's taste for controversy and stylization, but Bourdin's formal daring and the narrative power of his images exceeded the bounds of conventional advertising photography. Shattering expectations and questioning boundaries, he set the stage for a new kind of fashion photography. Bourdin worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Issey Miyake, Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace, Loewe, Pentax and Bloomingdale's.

Since his death, Guy Bourdin has been hailed as one of the greatest fashion photographers of all time, and his son Samuel Bourdin released a book with the finest prints of his father's work, called "Exhibit A" in 2001 (co-edited with Fernando Delgado). His first retrospective exhibition was held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London 2003, and then toured the National gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and Jeu de Paume in Paris.

Bourdin was the first photographer to create a complex narrative, then snatch a moment — sensual, provocative, shocking, exotic, surrealistic, sometimes sinister — and simply associate it with a fashion item. The narratives were strange and mysterious, sometimes full of violence, sexuality, and surrealism. Bourdin was influenced by his mentor Man Ray, photographer Edward Weston, the surrealist painters Magritte and Balthus, and film maker Luis Buñuel. Even though much less well known to the public than his colleague Helmut Newton (also working for Vogue), Bourdin possibly has been more influential on the younger generations of fashion photographers.

Doc - The Secret World of Haute Couture

Doc travels from New York to Paris to California to meet the designers and discuss how haute couture has changed over the years.

Curated by Jason Forrest

Total Runtime: 0:58:14

....The Secret World of Haute Couture attempts to provide a deeper understanding into the world of haute couture, a world that is normally closed to the “outsiders”, in just around an hour. Filmmaker Margy Kinmonth travels to New York, Paris, and California to meet up with members of the club, and to take a look at how haute couture has changed throughout the years.

The title says it all, really. From the beginning, it is emphasized that the “secret world” that the documentary was about to shed more light on was, without exaggeration, truly secret. A quick search on Google of the various members of the haute couture club proved that to be true (there was close to no information on haute couture members). Many of these members don’t have prolific online presences, and most of their public appearances are in fact rather secretive, considering the fact that you would have to be of equal status to attend the functions and events.

What I understood about the culture of haute couture before watching the documentary was that members of that elitist group was a group of rich and high-class socialites who like to spend all day discussing their exorbitantly priced clothes and where they were made, who made them, etc. Well, the part about them being extremely rich was right. They were willing to pay large sums of money that even goes into the tens of thousands of dollars to obtain a piece of clothing (and even hundreds of thousands for embroidered pieces). However, that wasn’t the essence behind the term “haute couture”....

from: http://actuallymag.com/the-secret-world-of-haute-couture-a-way-of-life-not-just-mere-fashion-culture/

Doc - The Secret World of Haute Couture

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The Films Of Guy Bourdin

0:08:57

Collection - Fashion of the 1920s

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Doc - The Secret World of Haute Couture

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The Films Of Guy Bourdin

Cinematic work from French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin!

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