Horst at the V&A review....

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The Images throughout the exhibition at the V&A, represent that Horst had a keen eye for detail, always taking into consideration the composition, light and also atmosphere of the image and also what the image created to the viewer. I discovered his career spread over a vast sixty years, and this was proven through the skill and the tenacity of involving emotion and also power in his work.

 He worked mainly in Paris and New York, both leading cities in the Fashion world and also generally in style. It was obvious from the work on show that he was a true artist that dabbled in many things such as drawing and prints as well as photography; Condé Nast holds an archive of this work also.

When looking at the work, I felt all of his images exuded power and sophistication, and beauty. In his fashion Images it is clear throughout that beauty was a key feature, which he took very seriously. Although some of the images are simple in structure the core of the image and what was held behind it  (which is hard to explain) was mesmerizing. Horsts work enables everyone to have a different opinion of a particular image.

The part of the exhibition I found most enticing was the 1939 Electric Beauty photo series. Women putting themselves through a kind of torture for the cause of beauty, it is still relevant today. It reminds me of a project I did last year, which focused on feminism and the female image. What do these women see when they look in the mirror? To us as viewers of Horsts photographs I find it shocking that they perceive themselves as ‘ugly’ for use of a better word.