What's the name of a world-famous photographer?

Frank Horvat was born in Italy and came to Paris after World War II. In 1950s and 1960s, he cooperated with world-renowned fashion magazines such as VOGUE, ELLE, Life, paris match Pictorial and Bazaar of Fashion to record the fashion world at that time from a unique perspective. In his fashion blockbusters, the protagonists are all a handful of celebrities, including coco chanel and Hardy Amis, who founded haute couture brands, Ferini, a famous Italian director who died, josephine baker, a French black musician, and a large number of stars and supermodels. Different from most fashion photographers at that time, horvath introduced news photography, pulling models to subway entrances, bars and food markets, taking ordinary people as the background, taking the subway as the scene, or simply taking snapshots. In horvath's works, fashion is full of details and more vivid.

In a photo taken in 1958, coco chanel stood hunched on the stairs, looking at his fashion show in the mirror. This captured photo has a strong news flavor, which instantly shows Coco's unknown side. Another photo was taken at 1959, when anna karina, a new wave actress, dressed in a haute couture dress, stood among a group of dirty workers, holding a glass and making an elegant toast to her. This photo is exactly what horvath once did.

In this way, horvath has traveled to almost every fashion capital, recording the latest information of fashion in the past 30 years.

Now, horvath and his family have settled in Provence. They seldom go out to contact the outside world by email. Receive an interview email from the reporter and reply one day later. Horvath has been to China, Beijing and Chongqing when he was young, and photographed Beijing Hutong and North Sichuan Plain in the morning fog. He sent dozens of emails back and forth to reporters and interviewed tens of thousands of words. Horvath, 79, is still full of intense curiosity. Unlike many photographers of his generation, he likes emerging digital photography and the Internet.

B= Bund Pictorial

F= Frank Horvat

Today's fashion magazines are still the same.

B: In the 1950s and 1960s, you made a blockbuster costume in the form of news reports. Why not follow the crowd and shoot on the set?

F: I can explain why in one word: lazy. It is much easier for me to work in my own way than to listen to others.

B: When did you try this kind of photography? Does this mean anything to you?

F: Start shooting like this from 1957. It didn't matter to me at that time, because I could only shoot like this.

B: You first met the famous photographer Henry Cartier-Braset at 1950. What's your impression of him?

He taught me to be ambitious and regard photography as an art ... In a sense, photography can make people see the world from an angle they have never seen before; Good photos should make people feel real, there is no choice. Not many photographers meet this standard. I think the biggest compliment to my work is that someone said: I have never seen such a tree after seeing the tree you photographed.

B: You have great respect for Bresson. Bresson suggested that news photography and fashion photography should not be done at the same time. Why didn't you accept his suggestion at that time? What do you think of his original suggestion now?

F: At that time, I thought he was right, but I just wanted to do fashion photography and do it in my own way. In retrospect, what I took at that time was ok, no matter what he said.

B: Your fashion photos are very dramatic. The model in the photo is not just a hanger, but a person with flesh and blood. Did you do your homework before shooting?

F: Actually, many of them are improvisations, but to do this, you must know what you want.

You have a famous work. The background of the picture is five men in dark clothes and gentlemen's hats, holding binoculars and looking at the back in the distance. The foreground is a graceful woman dressed in black and covered with white gauze. The Givenchy brand hat worn by the woman in the picture suddenly stands out. Please tell me about the creativity at that time.

This is an idea given to me by an art director.

B: How important is an artistic director to a fashion photographer?

The relationship between an artistic director and a photographer is just like the relationship between an emperor and his own painters and poets. They provide food to the people below and give instructions at the same time. Of course, there are good and bad artistic directors. In fact, the bad is much better than the good. I know a lot of artistic directors, some of whom are terrible. Only one person has really had a positive influence on me, and that is Marvin israel, artistic director of Bazaar of Fashion.

B: Many people say that reportage photography needs "natural suddenness". What about fashion photography?

F: I agree, so is fashion photography, because taking the second photo is definitely not a good one.

B: You have cooperated with many famous fashion magazines in Europe and America, but now you say that fashion magazines are not as good as before. Why?

F: When I was young, I always bought magazines out of curiosity and always found surprises. But there is nothing new in today's magazines, just more professional than before.

I don't think the future will be beautiful.

B: Many photographers are deeply influenced by their growing experiences. What about you?

F: Of course, everyone is the same. For example, my family speaks German, Italian and French, so I learned many languages. I want to learn Chinese! This is a completely different language, which will probably take me a lifetime. Just like speaking different languages, I like to constantly change the way I communicate with people, even taking photos. I am also engaged in news photography and fashion photography.

What about your family and wife? Does taking pictures make you more attractive to the opposite sex?

F: I have loved several women, some of whom were models I met when I took pictures. I have been married four times, three of which have children.

You show optimism in the photo. Are you an optimist?

F: I'm going to let you down-I'm not an optimist (that's pessimism). I don't think people today have the feelings of machines, and I don't think the future will be much better. For me, there are too few beautiful things, so I like to shoot positive and beautiful things, not necessarily beautiful women or beautiful scenery, but probably delicious food. This is everything I like in my life, literature and painting. I even like Jane Peter Wiggin's works with peculiar style. Even dead dogs or big perverts can find the unique light of good art in them.

I respect every subject.

B: You said, "No matter how good a photographer is, he can only take a few (or hundreds) successful photos in his life." What about you? How many successful works are there?

F: I believe that a successful photographer can take many good photos in his life, but only a few can be like a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. The audience will be inexplicably moved and can see things outside the skill. Photographers can only have very few such photos in their lifetime. I have one too, but I won't tell you. It's up to you to observe

B: You also said, "Photographers are lonely, because they are always hesitant and always looking." Do you have such a search experience?

F: I once went to Greece and rented a car at the airport to drive by myself. On the way, I met a flock of sheep and a blonde shepherdess, who was as beautiful as a goddess in Greek mythology. At that time, it was very late, the light was not good, and I was very tired. I thought I would meet many such shepherdesses in the future, so I didn't stop to take pictures for the next few days. But I was wrong. Later, I never saw anyone like her again.

B: In your book Dialogue with Photographers, which photographer's style don't you admire? Why?

F: The 14 photographers in the book all have their own characteristics, and I appreciate them all. But there are some things I can't accept, such as Nobuyoshi Araki, a famous Japanese photographer (famous for his erotic photography), who tied some naked girls to chairs in one of his photos? 6? 8? 6? eight

B: But Jane Peter Wiggin's works are also violent, cruel and perverse. Why can you accept Wiggin, but not Nobuyoshi Araki?

F: Yes, Wiggin's works are as unacceptable as Araki, but in Wiggin, I can see the so-called good art, good photography and good composition. He gave the character dignity, but Araki didn't.

B: Please summarize your photography idea in a few words.

F: I respect everyone I have photographed.

For more exciting content, please pay attention to 2007.0 1. 18 No.217 Bund Pictorial.