Guy Bourdin

Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) was a French art and fashion photographer working from Paris known for his experimental and radical photography. Bourdin’s career spanned more than four decades, with works created for the world’s most prominent fashion houses and magazines. His images have been exhibited in institutions worldwide and remain in the collections of museums such as the Getty and the MoMA. Bourdin’s imagery bridged the gap between the surreal and the subjective, the absurd and the sublime, his images told complete narratives in his signature bold and often provocative aesthetic. Inspired by his close relationship with Man Ray, Bourdin shot his surrealist images mostly in color and found a way to extract drama from the everyday. Guy Bourdin’s imagery is vivid in its expert compositions and attention to detail, and his visionary shaped the history of commercial photography.