"Timeless images from one of the first fashion provocateurs whose singular way of seeing influenced contemporary photography and continues to do so.” –Emotion Daily
One of the Polaroid's acknowledged masters, Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) brought to the medium an uncanny ability to combine the snapshot feel with a strong patina of glamour, and of course plenty of sexiness. A protégé of Man Ray, and best known today for his controversial fashion photography, Bourdin like his teacher often brought an edge of menace or discomfort to his eroticism, with surrealistic props and implied narratives. Like the Surrealists, he often devised ways to bisect the female form, usually by cropping out above the waist; all these traits of Bourdin's fashion photography are to be found here, in this selection of 98 Polaroids, most of which have never previously been published. Ranging in formality from casual seaside erotica to darkened interiors with disembodied legs and arms poking into the frame, these images step outside the safety of the fashion shoot, conjuring a real-life realm steeped in an ominous sexuality.
Above: A spread from 'Guy Bourdin: Polaroids.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Vanity Fair
Rachel Tashjian
Guy Bourdin’s photographs are a study in the perverse contradictions that make modern fashion so appealing: threatening but intriguing, haunting but chic. They're disturbing, but you’re buying what he’s selling.
GQ
Krista Prestek
The color photos are lushly saturated in the way that only this type of film offers, while the black & whites are gauzy, almost ghostly. And they’re all reproduced at actual size as if the snapshots are sitting on the page. It’s a powerful collection from one of Polaroid’s true masters.
Emotion Daily
timeless images from one of the first fashion provocateurs whose singular way of seeing influenced contemporary photography, and continues to do so…. Printing is excellent. The slight spot varnish on the photographs and the minimalist layout reinforce the Polaroid sensation.
New York Magazine
Stephanie Eckardt
Paved the way for a new type of fashion photography.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Xavier Barral's beautifully-produced, silver clothbound collection of the late French photographer Guy Bourdin's gritty yet glamorous Polaroids is a book for the dark side of every fashion photographer's bookshelf. Erotic, mysterious, surreal, and so perfectly Paris-in-the-70s, these photographs capture fantasies and fetishes that only grow more powerful over time. "One is always marvelously surprised when one has the chance to look at a photograph by Guy Bourdin," photographer Oliviero Toscani writes. "Each of his images is a well of meaning and emotions; when regarding his photographs one has the particular sensation of entering a world that is fantastic, human, dreamlike, eccentric, absurd, metaphysical and based in a unique sensibility." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 6.75 x 9.75 in. / 128 pgs / 98 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.5 ISBN: 9782915173567 PUBLISHER: Editions Xavier Barral AVAILABLE: 6/30/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by Editions Xavier Barral. Text by Oliviero Toscani.
"Timeless images from one of the first fashion provocateurs whose singular way of seeing influenced contemporary photography and continues to do so.” –Emotion Daily
One of the Polaroid's acknowledged masters, Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) brought to the medium an uncanny ability to combine the snapshot feel with a strong patina of glamour, and of course plenty of sexiness. A protégé of Man Ray, and best known today for his controversial fashion photography, Bourdin like his teacher often brought an edge of menace or discomfort to his eroticism, with surrealistic props and implied narratives. Like the Surrealists, he often devised ways to bisect the female form, usually by cropping out above the waist; all these traits of Bourdin's fashion photography are to be found here, in this selection of 98 Polaroids, most of which have never previously been published. Ranging in formality from casual seaside erotica to darkened interiors with disembodied legs and arms poking into the frame, these images step outside the safety of the fashion shoot, conjuring a real-life realm steeped in an ominous sexuality.
