Horst P. Horst

Horst P. Horst was one of the original pioneers of 20th Century fashion photography. His signature style is today instantly recognisable – combining portraiture and fashion with simple but essential embellishments. His photographs were the subject of a solo exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2015.

<span class="title">Carmen Face Massage<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">1946</span>
<span class="title">Summer Hats, Fonssagrives and Lane, New York<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">1940</span>
<span class="title">Electric Beauty<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">1939</span>
Horst P. Horst
Carmen Face Massage, 1946
Platinum palladium
22 x 18 in.
© Horst Estate

This selection of Horst P. Horst's work focuses solely on his exquisitely crafted and evocative platinum prints.

 

In 1987, a year after Hamiltons first exhibited Horst's work, Tim Jefferies and then co-owner Andy Cowan commissioned a series of platinum prints from Horst, of his most favoured photographs. The scale of the works made it an expensive and tentative move in the 1980s, but the end results and exhibition were an unreservedly great success.

 

Hamiltons continued to work with Horst over the years, and exhibited his photographs on a number of occasions. In 2006 the gallery presented Horst's platinum prints again; a cloth bound limited edition slip cased book was published to commemorate the exhibition. The book includes a foreword by Tom Ford, "Horst was in my opinion one of the great photographers of his time. He was a perfectionist in every sense of the word. There is nothing accidental in his work - every line, every shadow, every movement enhances what he finds in front of his camera, and the results, seen on these pages, speak handsomely for the success of his approach. His ethos of simplicity and the way in which he constructed his images - as a form of photographic sculpture - has always been an inspiration to me. But most of all, everything about Horst resonates with true style, and that to my mind, is irresistible."