Inside the exhibition of Frank Horvat’s fashion photography in Germany

Frank Horvat was one of the world’s greatest fashion photographers. He helped elevate the medium to high art and with his thoughtful photographs, changed the way we view fashion as a whole.

Now, his latest masterpieces are on display in a solo exhibition at the Leica Galerie Wetzlar, which opened on February 3 and will run until April 30 in Wetzlar, Germany. The exhibition is called Please don’t smilesomething he would show his subjects before shooting their portraits.

The exhibition highlights fashion photography from the photographer who had a 70-year career. He showed the world how fashion photography was more than just a way to sell bags, noting that, “Without a story to tell, fashion would never have really interested me,” he said during an interview. .

Horvat is known for his fashion photographs, which have been published in Vogue, Elle AND Harper’s Bazaar. Based in Paris, he captured the city in all its romantic glory, from misty night scenes to unconventional views of the Eiffel Tower.

And yes, he owned a Leica camera and was introduced to the brand by his friend and fellow photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (who now has his own named museum in Paris).

Horvat was born in Croatia, lived in Italy and moved to Paris in 1955. He began working as a fashion photographer in 1957, doing photo shoots for fashion magazines in Paris, London and New York, until 1962. He worked in black and – white film and some of his best photos were captured during this time, such as his photos of Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau and Yves Saint Laurent.

After working as a commercial photographer, he then started working on photo books, such as New York Up And Downa tribute to city street life, and Please don’t smile, which was published in 2015.

He not only told the models to refrain from smiling, but also told them to be themselves. “Later, when it was this natural type, the girl next door, I didn’t like it anymore, because it had become a stereotype,” he said in an interview in 2015. “I enjoy showing something that only I see. . Showing something the model wants to show doesn’t interest me.”