Black and White Photography by Henry Clarke

Born in Los Angeles in 1918, Henry Clarke, the renowned fashion photographer, discovered his calling in 1945 whilst working as an accessorist at Condé Nast in New York. During an encounter with the great Cecil Beaton during a photography session at Vogue’s studio, Clarke was entranced by the photographic image. He promptly abandoned his fashion job, borrowed a Rolleiflex camera and began taking pictures.


Deciding to try his luck abroad, Clarke moved to Paris in 1949. There his friend, Robert Randall, reintroduced him to the fashion world. He quickly found work at Fémina, L’Album de Figaro and Harper’s Bazaar. The next year he began a fruitful collaboration with the French, English and American editions of Vogue that would last more than a quarter-century. With the help of women like Suzy Parker, Ann Sainte Marie and Bettina, the most glamorous models of the day, Clarke captured the elegance of the modern woman: young, lively, carefree and seductive.

Portrait Photography by Richard Avedon

One of the most productive and important partnerships between art director and photographer was that of Brodovitch and Richard Avedon. Working together on Harper’s Bazaar and Portfolio magazines, Brodovitch was undoubtedly Avedon’s greatest influence. Under the designer’s wing, Avedon developed a repertory of stylistic effects that included blurred motion, activity frozen in mid stride, out of focus faces, incongruous subject matter and a cinema verité that resembled the ‘available light’ school of photojournalism.