FRANK HORVAT – PLEASE DON’T SMILE
2016-06-27The exhibition takes its title from Horvat’s recently published retrospective monograph (Hatje Kanz 2015), which documents Horvat’s extensive oeuvre, with a focus on his revolutionary approach to fashion photography. The sensibility of a photojournalist combined with his “refined visual humor”, set Horvat and his sartorial images apart from those of his colleagues.
Horvat took his models out of the studio and onto the street, removing the make-up and staging typically used for photoshoots. A photographer with an approach and a style ahead of his time, Horvat explains, “My photographs got published, because ready-to-wear fashion needed more realistic photography, and because the editors-in-chief knew it”. In turn, Horvat’s images helped redefine the role of modern women in society, showing the world a woman “with both feet in life, a true counterpart”.
Laurent Rouvrais, Horvat’s assistant in the 1970s and 1980s describes Horvat’s process, “He wanted them [his models] to find their own attitudes, and when he was pleased with what they found, he would only suggest some small variation, for instance in the way they held their neck, their shoulders, or their fingers. What he wanted them to find by themselves was what he called a presence. As a result the girls in his photographs never looked dumb”.
Opposite – Shoes and Eiffel Tower, 1974
Exhibition runs through to July 9th, 2016
Fahey/Klein Gallery
148 North La Brea
Los Angeles
California
CA90036
