Modern fashion photography was born when three brothers, Parisian postcard photographers, shifted their lenses to the upper echelon of French society in the early twentieth century. As impromptu portraits of beautiful women in inimitable finery at racecourses, resorts, and cafs began to appear in magazines, courant designers such as Chanel, Herms, and Madeleine Vionnet rushed to send their models to posh watering holes to be photographed with the beau monde. The first-ever showcase of 300 rich black and white Seberger images, this luxe collection is a must-have for fashionistas, Francophiles, and vintage clothing enthusiasts. Elegance recalls a bygone era of glamour, and illuminates the candid beginnings of a now highly stylized photographic form.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Virginie Chardin is the author of several photography volumes.
Xavier Demange is an art historian and contributes to numerous museum exhibition catalogs.
Sylvie Aubenas is a chief curator at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. She lives in Paris.
Xavier Demange is an art historian and contributes to numerous museum exhibition catalogs.
Sylvie Aubenas is a chief curator at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. She lives in Paris.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I own the old book _A Fashion Parade: The Seeberger Collection_, by Celestine Dars, and love it. Unfortunately, it was only ever published in the UK and it's long out of print, so it's very hard to find and very expensive. Happily for all fans of fashion photography, Virginie Chardin has filled the gap with her new book _Elegance_.
The key thing about the brothers Seeberger is that, unlike a lot of later fashion photographers, they didn't go for sometimes-arty, sometimes-pretentious, sometimes-stagy posed shots. They preferred to get out and take pictures of the fashionable women of their day as these ladies actually wore their latest and most stylish clothes; the chic racetracks such as Auteuil were an especially favorite destination for the Seebergers, as, like Ascot in Britain, the grounds were thronged by women dressed in the latest fashions. Therefore, in this book, you'll see hundreds of photos of high fashion as it was worn in real life - not just the photographer's studio - in the first half of the 20th century. That alone should make it a first-class resource for fashion students and historians.
The key thing about the brothers Seeberger is that, unlike a lot of later fashion photographers, they didn't go for sometimes-arty, sometimes-pretentious, sometimes-stagy posed shots. They preferred to get out and take pictures of the fashionable women of their day as these ladies actually wore their latest and most stylish clothes; the chic racetracks such as Auteuil were an especially favorite destination for the Seebergers, as, like Ascot in Britain, the grounds were thronged by women dressed in the latest fashions. Therefore, in this book, you'll see hundreds of photos of high fashion as it was worn in real life - not just the photographer's studio - in the first half of the 20th century. That alone should make it a first-class resource for fashion students and historians.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
wow, glad I found this book. my focus is entirely on fashion images and this has really great images, especially from the teens---which aren't that plentiful (in other books), ie, real photos of the clothes from that period. the difference between the illustration of a teens style and the actual photo of a real person can be a real hoot! Anyway, lots of images that I haven't seen before of fashions from the turn of the century to about the late 30's early 40's. I have quite a library of fashion books now, but this goes into the 'real treasure' category.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Long before Bill Cunningham was snapping his images of the fashionable on the street, before anyone had invented "paparazzi", way ahead of the cult of celebrity journalism, the Seeburgers were recording real fashion in what was then the undisputed fashion capital of the world, Paris and its environs. This book not only beautifully reproduces great images of the times, the personalities and the fashions, it delineates the hows and whys of what was taking place on all those fronts. You could revel in looking at the pictures and reading captions, but don't skip the text. To say the least it's enlightening about a remarkable era that exists only minimally in visual form.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegance portrayed in Fashion Photography
"Elegance" is a beautiful book created in memoriam of celebrity photographers (Seeberger brothers) that worked before the Second World War. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Flavia Stanciu
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegance in pictures
This book is an excellent research piece for anyone interested in fashion and fashion photography. Quality printing, superb images, strong narrative. Great buy.
Published on May 13, 2011 by Virgil C. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very elegant!
More than elegant. The start of street fashion photography and some values in life that we have forgotten.
Published on December 10, 2009 by K. Vasiliadis
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