Horst P. Horst - Biography

1906
Born Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann, on August 14 in Weißenfels-an-der-Saale, Thuringia, the younger son of Max Bohrmann, the wealthy owner of a hardware business, and his wife, Klara Schönbohm.

1914
War is declared. The Bohrmann family business deteriorates. Horst attends the local school, learning French and English.

1920s
The Bohrmann family prospers and is the first in the town to buy a car. Staying at the family’s country house, Horst meets and befriends students from the Bauhaus at Weimar. Enrols at the Kunstgewerbeschule as a furniture designer and carpenter under Walter Gropius.

 1929
He writes to architect Le Corbusier in Paris, offering himself as an apprentice, and is amazed to be accepted.

1930
Under the wing of the novelist Julien Green and his friend Robert de Saint-Jean, Horst is taken around Paris to art galleries, monuments, and Versailles.

In September he meets George Hoyningen-Huene, chief photographer for Vogue France. Horst moves in with him, becoming his protégé, photographic assistant, and occasional model.

1931
Horst is introduced to Mehemed Agha, the art director of American Vogue. Intrigued by his cosmopolitan references, Agha invites Horst to come to work at Vogue France as a fashion photographer. His first pictures are published uncredited in the November issue.

1932
Travels to London to undertake some sittings for Vogue including a portrait of Gertrude Lawrence. In Paris, photographs Lee Miller, then the mistress of Man Ray. His first exhibition is well received, as reported by Genêt (Janet Flanner), Paris Correspondent of the New Yorker. Horst maintains her review prompted Condé Nast’s invitation to work for Vogue in New York for six months.

 1933
Starts work again for Vogue France on still lifes and minor fashion shoots. Given much of Huene’s responsibilities when the latter leaves Paris on assignments for Vanity Fair.

 1935
Becomes Chief Photographer at Vogue France when, after a row with Dr Agha, Huene abruptly resigns to join Harper’s Bazaar.

 1936
Takes one of his best-known fashion studies, The White Sleeve, of Doris Zelensky against a balustrade in a suit by Robert Piguet. Takes his first pictures of Lisa Fonssagrives, the first Vogue photographer to do so.

 1938
His first show in the USA is considered a success.

 1939
Huene and Horst travel to Greece, the latter on assignment for Vogue. By chance, they meet fellow photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, whom Horst photographs at Delphi, and Herbert List. His final photograph before World War II breaks out is arguably his most famous – the Mainbocher Corset.

 1941-43
Germany declares war on the United States and Horst - an enemy alien - cannot work outside the Vogue studio. Death of Condé Nast. Horst’s portrait (of eight years earlier) is used as a tribute to their proprietor in American Vogue. He formally enlists in the US Army, taking the oath under the name “Horst P. Horst.”

 1946-50
Acquires a twelve-acre plot of land at Oyster Bay, on the north shore of Long Island, where he settles with lifelong companion Valentine Lawford. He then used this location for his fashion shoots. Starts to work occasionally for House & Garden.

Publication: Patterns from Nature, J. J. Augustin Publishers, New York.

1951
Vogue’s New York studios are closed down, so Horst rents the abandoned studio of the painter Pavel Čeliščev. As an assistant, he takes on Eddie Pfizenmaier, who stays with him for the next fifteen years.

1962
His friend Diana Vreeland joins Vogue from Harper’s Bazaar. At her suggestion, Horst starts to take photographs for a series of articles on the houses and gardens of the famous, including Cy Twombly and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

1968-71
Death of Huene in California. Horst inherits his photographic archive.
On Vreeland’s dismissal from Vogue, Horst begins to work again for House & Garden under the editorship of Mary Jane Pool in America.

1985
Horst. Photographs 1931–1986 published by Idea Book, Milano, to coincide with an exhibition at the Fortuny Palace in Venice.

Richard Tardiff becomes his manager (and is later adopted by the photographer, taking the name of Richard Tardiff Horst).

1989-90
Along with fellow Vogue photographer Norman Parkinson, Horst receives an honorary doctorate from Bradford University. He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Several of his motifs and the Mainbocher Corset image are borrowed for the video to Madonna’s song Vogue.

1992
Horst stops taking photographs due to his failing eyesight. His final pictures are of flowers.

1996
Given the Master of Photography award by the International Center of Photography, New York, and retrospectives are held at Hamiltons Gallery, London, and Staley-Wise Gallery, New York, to celebrate Horst’s ninetieth birthday.

1999
Horst dies in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 93 on November 18.
Memorial celebration of Horst’s life held at the Lotos Club, New York, with tributes from Paloma Picasso and Bruce Weber among others.