Courrèges, Chanel, Dior, Lanvin, Cardin, Paco Rabanne… Claudia Schiffer, Salma Hayek, Johnny Halliday, Jacques Chirac… For almost sixty years, Jean-Daniel Lorieux has photographed the greatest models dressed in the most prestigious designer brands, and has mingled with stars and renowned politicians. Pushing the boundaries of age, he doesn't care about the passage of time: tireless, relentless, always in a good mood, he continues to travel the world in company of the most beautiful women in the world.
For this first retrospective exhibition in a museum, we have images that mark an era and those that best define the "Lorieux touch." An eternal and passionate lover, Jean-Daniel has sublimated all the women he photographed (in fact, he married some of them). His love for their bodies is evident: even with the most improbable outfits or hairstyles, his models are always highlighted in their feminine beauty. Long legs, a penetrating gaze, angular poses: they all reach the heights and command respect. Despite the hypersexualization of the 1990s, his women appear powerful and dominant. A trait he shares with another great name in fashion photography, Helmut Newton.
Through the aesthetics of different decades, Lorieux's work, when revisited, offers a journey through the history of fashion photography from the 1960s to the present day. The exhibition retraces this magnificent journey where Courrèges, Cardin, or Paco Rabanne women with geometric and color block structures meet; seductive and baroque women for Lacroix or Dior in the 1990s; independent and free fish-women...
Besides the sublimation of women, Jean-Daniel enjoys playing with the clothes he photographs, weaving a dialogue between his model, the couture creation, and the shooting location. His famous photos recently taken at Pierre Cardin's Palais Bulles resonate in forms, colors, and bodies, generating a new unidentified photographic object. His staging is flamboyant, his shots sunny and invigorating.
