The “official story”: Frank Horvat was born in 1928 in what was then Italy and is now Croatia. He studied art in Milan and a meeting in 1951 with Henri Cartier-Bresson decided his fate as a photojournalist. He traveled the world in the early 50's and sent his work back to Paris Match, Life and Realities among other magazines.

In 1956 he settled in Paris and began to photograph fashion with a reportage style: real life situations, ambient lighting and 35 mm cameras. During his long career, Frank Horvat has contributed to every major magazine and has been exhibited in Paris, London, Prague, Berlin, and New York. –Staley-Wise Gallery

Then there’s another story, different but not at odds with Horvat’s fashion images. What sets his black-and-white photography apart from the usual journalistic fare of the 1950s and ‘60s is an informality that comes from his connection with his subjects, whoever they may be, and a zest for life that comes from the air he breathes. See for yourself, from Horvatland:

1955, London, East End, Brick Lane dog market

1951, Paris, Les Halles

1956, Paris, Le Sphynx (c), self-portrait with stripper

1953, Kedarnath, India, Janine Deloche

1959, France, Cannes

1963, Warsaw, couple in a café

1956, Paris, white poodle

In almost 70 years of photography, I had the time to photograph many different subjects, with at least a dozen different techniques. But that’s almost beside the point. The point is that I had the time to play many different games. The hardest, as in the case of the present website, is to make this clear to the people who look at my work. –Frank Horvat