Horst P. Horst, Coco Chanel, 1937

Horst P. Horst (1906-99) created images that transcend fashion and time. He was a master of light, composition and atmospheric illusion who conjured a world of sensual sophistication. In an extraordinary sixty-year career, his photographs graced the pages of Vogue and House and Garden under the one-word photographic byline ‘Horst’. He ranks alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as one of the pre-eminent fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century.

The creation of a Horst photograph was a collaborative process, involving the talents of the photographer and model, the art director, fashion editor, studio assistants and set technicians. The modeling profession was still in its infancy in the 1930s and many of those who posed under the hot studio lights were stylish friends of the magazine’s staff, often actresses or aristocrats. His images frequently appeared in the French, British and American editions of the magazine.

Horst’s portraits spanned a wide cross-section of subjects, from artists and writers to presidents and royalty. In the 1930s, he became aware of a new focus for his work. As he later noted in his book Salute to the Thirties (1971), glamorous Hollywood movie stars were imperceptibly assuming the place left vacant by Europe’s vanishing royal families. With the approach of the Second World War, the escapism offered by theatre and cinema gained in popularity. Horst began to photograph these new, classless celebrities, both in costume and as themselves.

Horst | Shadow and Light continues through November 1 at Staley-Wise Gallery. 560 Broadway, NY, NY.
Horst | Photographer of Style, continues at the Victoria & Albert Museum through January 4, 2015. Cromwell Road, London.

Geof Kern, Couples at the Ritz, 1995 

Trailblazing fashion photographer Geof Kern first made a mark with his advertising work for Dallas icon, Neiman Marcus. In 1996, Kern created the cover for the groundbreaking first issue of, The Book, a popular Neiman Marcus publication. Soon after, Neiman Marcus called upon several leaders of the fashion photography world to create a hefty, 30  - 40 page advertising insert for Harper's Bazaar named, The Art of Fashion. Geof Kern, Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz each created a separate issue.

In 2007, Kern conceived, designed and photographed the innovative 100-year anniversary, limited edition, Neiman Marcus Pop Up book, which has become a collectible.

Geof Kern is on view through November 15 at PDNB Gallery, 1202 Dragon Street, Dallas, TX. The show is accompanied by a catalogue with a forward by D.J. Stout, former Texas Monthly photo editor and current design consultant for Pentagram.

True to her overall project of blurring the lines between reality and fiction, Venegas discovered that one of Mexico’s most popular media publications, El Norte, created a socials page geared specifically toward its San Pedro Garza Garcia subscribers. Venegas began photographing the residents of this enclave, a suburb of Monterrey, which has the highest income per capita in all of Latin America,

With this body of work Venegas captured the distinct demarcations of Mexico’s social class differences through the lens of her camera, offering the residents of SanPedra Garza Garcia an opportunity to perform for a public they will never meet. She captures her subjects in flux, scenes that reveal artifice, and various states of becoming.  Venegas balances beauty and composition with ideas of the absurd.  She finds substance beneath layers of pretense and turns a critical gaze toward the superficial.

Yvonne Venegas | San Pedro Garza Garcia continues through October 25 at Shoshana Wayne Gallery. Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA

Christopher Makos, Liza Minelli and John Lennon, 860 Broadway, 1978

Christopher Makos’ 21st monograph, Everything: The Black and White Monograph (Glitterati Incorporated), is a retrospective of three decades in the artist’s career.

Everything can be seen as a photo-biography. Here are portraits, landscapes, nudes, snapshots, studio shots, cars, dogs, horses, from Fire Island to Ascot, Mallorca to Moscow, Morocco to Puerta Vallarta, Giza to Palm Springs, as well as portraits of everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Queen Elizabeth II, from Man Ray to Jean-Michel Basquiat, from Tennessee Williams to John Lennon.

The oldest photograph in the book was a taken in 1973. It is a single foot set bare upon the beach in Ditch Plains, Montauk, New York. The journey of a thousand miles had begun. Everything stands as a testament to a life lived in the present tense, forever creating itself anew with every click of the lens.

Everything will launch at Lord & Taylor, New York, on Thursday, October 9 from 6-8pm. Hosted by Manhattan magazine, the event will include a book signing, as well as a fashion presentation, fashion style, a photo booth, grooming stations, and a live DJ. All are welcome to attend, and to RSVP with the subject line “Everything” to media@glitteratiincorporated.com

Save the Date

Aperture Magazine Live presents, 6:30 PM: Photography & Fashion’s Maverick Magazines. The New School. The Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street, NY,  NY. The magazine form is central to the story of fashion photography. In conjunction with the release of Aperture magazine’s “Fashion” issue, guest-edited by the esteemed fashion photography duo Inez & Vinoodh, this panel will explore the role of the magazine as a platform for innovation in fashion photography and for fostering the careers of many of the industry’s most important image-makers. Information .