Customer Reviews

Lisa Fonssagrives: Three Decades of Classic Fashion Photography

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Lisa Fonssagrives was the first true supermodel. She had a cool easiness to her modeling, she was almost surreal. Her beauty was perfection. I do not believe there has ever been a model that can compare to her. The supermodels of today, Cindy, Naomi, Claudia are all beautiful, but not in the same way that Lisa was perfect. Its so nice to see her images captured in a book. I hope that in the future more will be done to regenerate her place in history.

Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn was a beautiful woman and the world's first top model. This book is a collection of her most beautiful photos taken by some of the world's best photographers, including Lisa's husband, Irving Penn. There is some nice biographical information in the book, but it focuses primarily on the photographs, which are breathtaking. It's hard to find a nice copy of this book these days since it's been out of print for a while, but I highly suggest you do some searching on Amazon Marketplace or ebay: the book is totally worth it.

I not only grew up at a time when this lovely woman was modeling for some of the worlds best photographers but I was also getting into photography in a small way. Being a visual person I've spent too much time mooning over beautiful womens images and Lisa Fonssagrives was the loveliest. They don't make them like that any more in spite of the endless supply of beautiful women in our media. A lot of it has to do with the state of the world of couture where the women who buy most of the expensive gowns are featured in the fashion magazines, no matter that they are not ravishing beauties. Look at Lisas face and figure with a fashion photograpers eye and you'll know what I mean. Images of her in her later years show the ravages of time but I would still have felt honored to escort her around town as did some lucky photographers, Horst in particular. This book tells you something about her life and has a great collection of her images both from her work in fashion and in her real life with her family. I came away with the impression that she was also a beautiful person and quite unimpressed with all the fuss that was made over her. I paid an arm and a leg for my copy and I'm glad I have it now, still an inspiration to go out and find myself such a model.

Despite the fact that all the photographs in this book are of one person, this is the best collection of fashion photographs from the 1930s to 1950s era that I have seen.

This collection shows the beauty of a woman who had unique physical attributes to depict, what was regarded at the time as the ultimate in femininity and fashions of that era. Images, captured by a number of the most highly regarded fashion photographers of the day - such as Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Erwin Blumenfeld, Horst P. Horst, Clifford Coffin and Irving Penn - provide a wonderful testimony, to this unique and naturally beautiful woman. In addition to this, there are pictures of Lisa as she was in her later life.

At her most popular, pictures of Lisa Fonssagrives were splashed across the covers and editorials of such magazines as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Indeed, Lisa was the first fashion model to be featured on the cover of Time magazine in September 1949. The book also includes a short essay from the distinguished photo-historian Martin Harrison, which details Lisa's involvement in fashion, and the photographing of it.

The book's collection of images includes a number of nude depictions of Lisa. However, if it is sexual titillation you are looking for, then this book is not for you. If on the other hand, if you wish to see nude images created by Horst P. Horst and Fernand Fonssagrives, for example, that provides strong evidence why such nude images can only be described as art, then this book is for you.

In all, this book features a unique collection of photo images that in themselves provide a unique visual history of what was regarded as the ultimate in fashions of the Classic Look period. Buy it - gaze in wonderment at some of the best fashion photographs ever taken!