He revolutionized fashion photography by breathing new life into the stiff and statuesque pre-war models Through the emergence of a vibrant, humorous, and offbeat "reportage spirit," he constantly reinvented himself and experimented, to the point of being accused of losing his way and criticized for his excessive eclecticism… From the photojournalism of his early days to the "imaginary, dreamlike, fictional reportage" exploiting the unrealistic resources of digital imagery through his series Beasts ou Chimeras, combining realism and wonder, in the 1990s, from street photography to the artistic explorations of his series True Appearances (1980-1986) mimicking the great female portraits of Western painting, Franck Horvat never rested on his laurels. It even seems that he conceived his photographic practice as an eternal cycle of renewal…
Two years after his death at the age of 92, a tribute is paid to him through some 250 prints taken during the first fifteen years of his career, from 1950 to 1965. In addition to his iconic photographs published in Vogue et Harper's Bazaar After he revolutionized fashion photography with his "natural staged scenes," many of his early photographs reveal the intensity of his gaze, that of a "photographer of the body and intimacy." An intensity sometimes bordering on theatricality through the use of close-ups, accentuated by grainy effects that give the silhouettes a presence, an almost tactile reality.
Frank Horvat – Jeu de Paume, Château de Tours
25, avenue André-Malraux, Tours
https://chateau.tours.fr/
Until 30 October 2022
