A most affectionate view of fashion (#1679741)

Fashion’s closest creative relative is photography, and few photographers have been more loved in the world of fashion than Peter Lindbergh, the subject on an important exhibition currently in Galerie Dior in Paris.

Entitled ‘Galerie Dior x Peter Lindbergh’, it’s a unique exhibition as much for its conception as for the remarkable quality of the photography on display. Beguilingly, Lindbergh’s photographs are presented with the actual couture and luxury pret-a-porter creations seen his iconic images shot for fashion magazines, ad campaigns and special projects.
 
The late great Lindbergh’s connection to the house dates back to the 1980s, when he first began shooting Dior back when Marc Bohan was its designer. Subsequentl-, working with Dior fashion designed by Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Though best known for his black and white photography, Lindbergh excelled when lensing Galliano’s colorful theatricality. Like the brilliant photo of an uber alluring Shalom Harlow mimicking a Chinese femme fatale in a drop-dead gorgeous bias-cut gown named Alcée by Galliano from Dior couture 1997 – where the seven-foot-high photo is placed behind the actual dress. Or stunning siren dresses by Galliano with corsets made by jeweler Goossens, worn in an Vogue Italia shoot on models Kusudi and Kiku. While even though she is clinging to the Eiffel Tower, a very youthful Marion Cotillard looks almost angelic in a Galliano Dior bar jacket and plissé skirt.
 

Bohan’s successor Ferré is acknowledged in a touching black-and-white shot of Carolyn Murphy. Seen in a ravishing organza floral print gala robe made for a glamorous opening night of the season in La Scala or the Metropolitan Opera, it’s a sensitive image of a great beauty sitting pensively.
 
Moreover, Lindbergh had great range: from his expressionist vision of a fantastic strapless corset dress by Raf Simons made of silk, cotton and lambskin floral embroidery, shot on the rugged cliffside beach of Normandy resort Ault; to the subtlety of a pre-Raphaelite print of Rianne van Rompaey in a chiffon Grecian goddess look by Chiuri.
 
Ultimately, the key to great photography, especially for portraiture or fashion, is the connection a photographer establishes with the subject. In that sense, Lindbergh has few rivals. One senses that all these beautiful models were entirely at ease in his company, in no fear of being exploited. Candid shots even show them looking together with Peter through lens finder, or enjoying a good laugh. Their beauty is always respected, never cheapened. In an age of MeToo, and a feminist designer at Dior, Peter Lindbergh’s whole oeuvre seems an ideal expression in fashion photography.

Born in 1944 at the tail-end of WW2 in German-occupied Poland, Lindbergh went on to work as a window dresser before studying in the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout his career, the vast beaches of northern Germany, the detritus of war and region’s industrial towns influenced his work. He honed his style working for the great Hamburg news magazine Der Stern in the 70s before becoming a perennially cover creator for both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in the 80s, a rein that continued until his unfairly early death aged 74 in 2019. Right up until his passing he was still climbing artistically.
 
So much so, that in 2018, this house gave Peter Lindbergh carte blanche to shoot 80 emblematic Dior looks with his beloved Nikon in the raw gritty streets of New York, and around Time Square. Perfection meeting imperfection, and a chance for Lindbergh to shoot fashion dating back to Yves Saint Laurent and even Monsieur Dior – two of their little black dresses seen in the madding crowd of Manhattan.
 
“The responsibility of photographers today is to free women from the terror of youth and perfection,” commented Lindbergh, in a pull quote in one explanatory panel, which in a sense sums up much of what Maria Grazia Chiuri has strived for during her tenure at Dior.
 
In a word, a must-see exhibition, where the marriage of fashion and photography is consummated by a truly masterful photographer.