V&A To Host Horst Exhibition

The V&A will host a retrospective of the life and work of German photographer Horst P Horst this September entitled Horst: Photographer Of Style.

As one of the leading photographers of the 20th century, Horst's diverse archive spans the opulent salons of post-war Paris, the introduction of ready-to-wear to the extravagant studio set-ups of the Eighties and Nineties, and collaborations with fellow luminaries Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali along the way. As a result, the exhibition has been a long time in the making.

Horst

"In 2008, when we viewed the collection of the Horst estate, we were immediately struck by the quality and breadth of his output," Susanna Brown, curator of the exhibition, told us. "Horst ranks alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as one of the 20th-century's master photographers. To my mind, he is an ideal V&A subject because the work resonates across the various V&A collections, covering not only fashion but also themes such as interior design, Surrealism, Hollywood film and theatre."

It was still no mean feat editing the expansive archive down however.

"With Martin Barnes, senior curator of photographs, I examined each one of the thousands of vintage prints and felt privileged to have been allowed access to the extensive Condé Nast Archives in New York, London and Paris," said Brown. "The Paris archive contains his earliest black and white pictures, from the Thirties, while New York houses thousands of later photographs and exquisite colour images. Some of Horst's images have become icons of photography so it was definitely hard to edit down, as he was so prolific during his 60-year career."

Horst's long relationship with Vogue is also well documented in the exhibition, which opens on September 6 and will run until January 4, 2015.