Peter Lindbergh has a wonderful quote attributed to him in a german documentary - "every day I fall in love with a new women, and every night, I go home to my wife' - models loved working with Peter, he made them feel safe & respected and is (sadly) one of the VERY few superstar fashion photographers who remained a consummate professional throughout his career. One of my all time favourites & never have we needed his 'no retouching, true beauty' more than today. RIP.
He seems to be capturing moments of profound self-reflection. The models are fully present in the moment. Their eyes communicate the feeling of being in resonance, saying, "I am alive. This is happening now." The images are timeless because authentic experience is timeless, and that's what I feel I'm witnessing when I look at them.
Beautifully and astutely said. I understand that feeling of being hyper-aware of the present moment, but never knew if others felt the same at times. I love your comment.
I'm no photographer and I'm not interested in fashion, but this is an utterly fascinating presentation of an artist and his work. Thank you for introducing me to Lindbergh. Subscribed.
One of the many reasons why Peter Lindberg's work is timeless is because his focus was never on the clothes, yes it used to drive editors up the wall and why he never really booked big fashion campaigns. He always said his job is to capture the strength, intelligence and the emotions of the person who is in front of his camera. I became a huge fan of his work back in August 1988 when he shot Linda Evangelista for British Vogue, there's something so timeless about that story. Plus his work for Comme des Garcon is just pure magic. But I'm with you about Patrick Demarchelier, yes he was in the top six (Meisel, Ritts, Lindberg, Penn, Avedon and Demarchelier) but I truly never felt he had a style. But I look at some of the fashion photographers today and truthfully their work doesn't even compare to those that came before. I love Karim Sadli, but even his work looks like a Lindberg knock off.
Peter Lindbergh is the photographer we grew up with as todays fashion and beauty photographers. Often imitated, never surpassed. I’m in this business for 35 years or so, and I’ve seen all these trends come and go. Fortunately, today, there’s an increasing number of brands and magazines that look for a more natural, almost unedited, style with ‘real people’ in normal situations. Away from the loudmouth brand displays and extravaganza. It’s still small, but definitely growing. I love that style. There’s an ‘honesty’ in there that appeals to our need for real people with real emotions. True class never gets outdated…
The models were not without makeup. The make up they had on would work beautifully with black-and-white photography. Black smudged eyeliner, darker eyes sort of slept in make-up look. That paired with the white shirts made it iconic. The make-up look became also iconic because every editorial wanted the 'raw', not overly pretty, slightly smudged look. This no make-up look was as lot of work and Lindbergh knew what he wanted and what looked good in his photos.
It doesn't matter what these people are dressed in or where they are - Peter captures their essence - all while creating a beautiful work of art. Black and white photography is my favorite style of photography.
We, as young ladies, poured over and studied every square inch of our monthly Vogues. Not only did we copy the looks, we aspired to be these models. Thank you for giving me a style template to work from. I was a fifteen year old who just lost her mom and style guru. Vogue saved me. Much thanks and love to all those that made this mag, esp back then, happen. This was not just a periodical to some.. it was our Bible ...and Lindbergh was a Michaelangelo. Thank you for your wisdom. I could listen to you all day. Peace love and light to you, yours, and all out there 🌺🌹🌺🌹🌺
Just to let you know how much I enjoy and appreciate your channel. Most of the channels out there are more about gear and technique and, for me, I love your themes of art appreciation and how to learn from the masters that have come before us. Your perspective and talent are unique and much needed.
I love the work of Peter Lindergh, when talking to newer photographer, Peter is one of the photographers I recommend, not just because I love his work but because his work has a freedom that many photographers (including myself) lack. Beyond that he looks like he is having fun and that is so often something that photographers forget.
Just visited the ‘untold stories' photographic exhibition by Peter Lindbergh, in Brussels. Wonderful cinematic black and white images, fantastic quality prints, everything about the exhibition is premium. Even the framing is beautifully done. The images are engaging, big and beautiful. There is also a wonderful ‘testament’ to Lindbergh on the top floor, with a series of self portraits and a video installation. All showing the gaze of the man that created these wonderful images. The whole exhibition is a masterclass of how to do things well. I loved it.
Thank you Alex for an enlightening review of Peter Lindberg’s enduring work. Lindberg “style” was understated but powerful. He knew what he wanted to achieve with his photography & he was true to his particular “vision”.Great photographers work always seem to transcend time & remain, in fact, “timeless”.
I love that the shots almost seem candid sometimes. They don't have "special effects". And, the lighting is so natural, even when very shadowy(a look I love BTW). I follow a photography I feel has a very similar style. His name is Peter Coulson from Australia. Wonderful look at a fabulous photographer's work! Have a great day.
Peter Coulson the studio photographer? Lindbergh nearly always shot outside in natural light much like a reportage style. I'm struggling to see any resemblance whatsoever.
@@jeremyfielding2333 Well, I guess I wasn't looking at it that way. I was looking at the use of BNW, the way the light falls on the subjects and the skin tone. But yes, Coulsen is a studio guy.
Peter Lindbergh is hands down my favorite photographer of all time and I draw tons of inspiration from him. My passion is photographing horses and I’m always trying to capture the horses in the way he captured his models.
Thank you for not only introducing me to Lindbergh’s work, but for getting my mind to look at things differently. Your explanation that he achieved a candid, almost documentary style to fashion that revealed believable emotion was refreshing. It broke the spell of being disconnected from media. I remember at the time variations that revealed a more peaceful way of being. Taking this realism in a fashion context and blending it with industrial settings. Woah. I’m a fan of contrasts and dynamic range, tonal, textural, compositional, metaphorical. Thanks for continuing to share what you see. Till the next coffee!
I grew up in the 80s, reading my sisters' Vogues, and became obsessed with not only the images, but the names I saw in the credits: the sittings editors (stylist), hair and makeup artist, and of course the photographers. When I moved to NYC and began to work in fashion, how blessed was I to be on the sets of the greats--and Peter was most definitely one of the greats. Aside from being a visionary, he was one of the kindest and most gentle souls in fashion. Models LOVED working with him. He made them feel safe as well as fearless. If you love this, you have to find his film "Models". And you also have to see Peter's DKNY and Donna Karan ads...always timeless.
Comparing a fashion photographer to Lewis Hine and August Sander - well I didn't see that coming! Great insights as always. I'm most definitely not a fashion photographer and have very little interest in it, but Lingbergh's work is relevant to a much wider range of genres. That Taschen book looks like great value - looks like I'm going to be buying my first ever 'fashion' photography book. Oh, and this is unquestionably the best photography channel on You Tube.
I've often thought that Lindbergh shot portraits that happened to be fashion... That superb book is also available in a smaller, paperback format for only around £20.
I am not a people photographer, never mind models, but Lindberg's photographs have always struck me as perfect balance of showing the strength, beauty, cool, and class. Goes to show what little all these magazine editors, and art directors know about photography as an art of about people as a whole. All answers on a stamp please.
In the Lindbergh documentary ("The Eye"), you get to see him working on a day long photoshoot, going to different locations and directing the models. He treats it almost like a private investigator in movie, spying on a couple as they move through a city. Really interesting, spontaneous stuff.
Lindbergh was not a fashion photographer/he was a street photographer interested in humans and their emotions/fashion industry wanted a rebirth and found it through him.a master of it's own
Yes, I've always felt Peter Lindbergh's work transcends the fashion genre. I can't think of a more precise way to put it, at the moment, but I'd say that he must have a very warm personality because he manages to get candid and sincere expressions from people trained to pretend or to give a certain impression. Of course, his works are also self-portraits, in a sense, because his unique sensibility is felt on every image.
Please also reference Bruce Weber. Sante D'orazio - A Private View. The impression I get is that the subjects were absolutely comfortable in the presence of the photographer and the camera dissolved out of view.
I'm glad you mentioned so many other noteworthy photographers in this video so that I - who love photographs but know absolutely nothing about it - can go and look up some of those photographers you mentioned! And I absolutely loved Peter Lindbergh's photographs too so will definitely check out a book or two of his! Thank you! 😍
Thanks, Alex. Lindbergh makes the difficult, look effortless. This video has been a bit of a revelation! Looking at all these images, pushed together, makes me realise how much of an influence his work has been on me.
brilliant analysis on lindbergh. he photographed women as women not as sex objects. he photographed men in the same way. as people. and by doing so he found beauty, depth and a humanity that the viewer can relate too. it is his genuine interest in character that separates him from almost every other fashion photographer. this and his pearly black and whites are timeless.
8:53 - as a photographer, while worshipping Lindbergh both for the striking images AND the great cultural impact, if I had a gun to my head and had to make a critical comment about his work, I would say - the fact the he was so good at creating expression and exuding strength, was very much a function of the models he worked with in those works of his that became iconic. That's why "there's nothing you can put your finger on" - the carefree, naturalistic style he pioneered worked so well because he was largely shooting forces of nature - extreme, fresh beauty, with larger-than-life characters - and while his side of the work was superb, there's a reason why people point at his works with Naomi, Linda, Christy as a reference for the strength of his works overall. Those same compositions, with other models, may have worked, or not. Or maybe they would've worked to pioneer the style, without achieving this godly status. We'll never know - but we should all be thankful the stars aligned so well and we got to see the synthesis of photographic greatness! Obviously, there are examples to bring as counterarguments to this line of reasoning. That triple portrait at 11:59 may just be one of the best constructed photos ever taken. Flawless. EDIT: also, his soft, "hyper-natural" light, in studio or location, was so clean and evocative, it's basically what people want to get when they're thinking "fashion editorial photography". And his black and white rode the line between flat greys and subject pop in a way nobody ever made to look as good. His printers and colorists are unsung heroes of his work, imho!
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Thanks to Peter for his insight and work and thanks to you Alex for seeing it and talking about it...
Literally just ( yesterday) ordered a ( 2nd hand ) copy of a book on George Hurrells Hollywood. It turned up today and while truly amazing many don't have the timeless look of Peter Lindbergh. Great video. Thank you for sharing
I absolutely loved watching this piece of work & I just drank in every single moment of it, having only recently found & subscribed I'm now hooked, will be taking another glug tomorrow
I incorporated an interpretive moment from Lindbergh in a recent, admittedly amateur, vid production- it had always stuck in my mind and when I saw it...
i never heard of many photographers, but I was in NY on holiday and went to the Guggenheim and there was a show of his work.....and came out totally energized to shoot shoot photos of people.
How lucky was I to have been on Peters set in he southern California desert to meet him and have a one on one chatt with him an amazing person ! It was a beautiful conversation and when we parted after our conversation he kissed on both cheeks , being an American I was struck at first but thinking it was so European and a gesture of friendship and respect . I was on a few of his sets he was a beautiful person ! And for sure a God in the fashion photographer world !
Great post and interesting observations. Lindbergh was a unique talent whose work I've always admired (even more so when I became a commercial photographer--I have a signed print of the image @11:00) who really was just curious about what was going on inside these young, often very young, women. When that white-shirt shot was taken I was in NYC publishing (a photo editor at Rolling Stone Magazine). The editor of Vogue at the time was Grace Mirabella. She had been at Condé Nast for years and while very competent, she was not a visionary. Long story short, she was fired to bring in Anna Wintour who was the right person at the right time to turn around Vogue and hire new talent (editors/art directors/writers/photographers). And hat's off too to Derek Ungless (Vogue's creative director who I worked with when he was the creative director at Rolling Stone) for his vision in letting the talent create images that inspired them, not just inspired the advertisers.
The word document comes to mind. I cannot define it but I can feel it. It is as if Lindbergh was selecting the liminal space between time, outside of time but containing all of it past and future. His images, IMO, perfectly combine memory and history because of the human element on which you touch. cheers and great vid.
When I returned to pick up my portfolio from Vogue in 1985, in perhaps my third unworthy attempt at catching their eye with my Newton inspired fashion photos, I was generously offered a few words from an assistant editor. She told me they look for an original non-fashion photographic vision, which they might find interesting meshing with their fashion needs. Lindbergh's work took his reportage style and with remarkably little sense of obligation to display fashion at all, managed to find favor in the fashion industry of his time. Deborah Turbeville might make an interesting subject, as her artistic vision is a great example of of what Vogue found to be of interest. As her former assistant, I know how she struggled to balance her artistic view of the world with the expectations of Vogue editors on location. She once turned to me and said, "Can you believe I have to photography this stuff?" If Lindbergh is any guide, perhaps she didn't.
The fact that Peter's work is less easily identifiable as coming from a particular time period is true but fashion is always a reflection of a particular era and therefore a strong argument can be made that fashion photography should also be bound by the particular time period of the fashions of the day. In this way the photographers mentioned here are equally great.
Peter is brilliant def my fav fashion photographer but certainly you can recreate his vibe. B&W micro contrast lens. Use a 70-200 at 200! Mood is dark feels over cast moody. Beautiful people with very chiseled bone structure.
Art ❤ Thank you for this video. I loved Lindbergh’s work. This was my first viewing & reaction was appreciation & love of the art. Not just photography- art. Beautiful art at that. 🥰
There are several high fashion photographers that have produced timeless art in their photos they way Lindberg has. Ellen VonUnworth is one of them that comes to mind. We are so lucky to have had these amazing artists set the standard for their craft!
You know what Alex Kilbee back in the 90's I was so into Fashion, loved the editorials that were over the top with clothes, hair and makeup and because of that I didn't like the work of Peter Lindberg. However decades after the fact his images are timeless as you mentioned and I totally see them in a different way. Thank you Sir for all the great content you make!
Thanks. Now I have to buy this book and the Helmut Newton book. I don't like to talk about my work all that much-I mean, who the hell am I?- but this is what inspires me. Not how many layers of HD you applied or which 15 software programs you used but did Lewis Hine, August Sander, Helmut Newton, John Singer Sargent, or Andrew Wyeth sneak into your work and did the subject look comfortable in his/her own skin.
Thanks for that. I've been lucky to work with Duffy and Bailly in my old art directing days and it was both a pleasure and an education. When taking up photography many years later its always a problem in just how one gets around their shots, especially as they define the moment.
I love the feeling of Lindbergh’s photos. I’ve tried to convey to models what I’m looking for sometimes, but I can’t describe it. I need to collect Lindberghs and ask them to study them for a while, try to absorb that vibe, then shoot. It’s so hard to drop pretense and just be people. Thank you for this inspiration.
It'a not about telling the models that the feeling is supposed to be. It's about the photographer putting the models at ease enough to feel safe and free while being guided gently into that zone without knowing the photographer has been getting them there all along.
Thank you so much Alex ... - Although thanking may not be the best word but this is where my eloquence fails me - Your channel is a treasure for who is seeking food-for-thought .. It intrigues my mind and stimulates the creativity by stretching it into different dimensions
As a photographer I learned a long time ago that it's all about whose idea the shoot was. I pitched one idea to a commercial contact, as I wanted their permission before I pitched the concept to the magazine that I had in mind. "No, I don't think that we're interested," said my contact, "but I'll mention it to the boss." Not thirty minutes later the contact called me back and very excitedly said, "Do you think that they'd use it on the front page?" Zero to a hundred in seconds. The thing was that from her perspective it wasn't MY idea anymore but her boss's! However, and more likely, it could have quietly died.
Always liked his work took fashion and tried to tell a story with it when Vogue rejected him I wonder who the fashion editor was at that time That was probably when Grace Mirabella was still there
I still have two Vogue Paris (Glamour) issues #762 and #763 and probably had every fashion mag on the rack for two years. The time during a three day fashion studio lighting workshop. Some photos I shot on expired 35mm Polaroid of one model I brought into her agency. They liked them. Pretty offbeat. If my classmates hadn't egged me on, I wouldn't have shot them.
Wonderful presented Peter Lindbergh's work in your video! Some thoughts came into my mind, i'd like to share... You said that his photos often look as recently shot even when they are shot in the 80/90s. This let me think that it makes his photos somehow timeinvariant, which is the opposite of fashion. I think that often works as he photographed the models in "street photography" way ( urban / models natural environment, almost never smiling women...) And "street photography" is still in vogue ;-). It's fascinating how he combines fashion with iconic photographs. Thanks for sharing your content with us - it often triggers us to think more deeply about how to photograph our own pics.
What's so good about looking at old art like this, is that you know it's real. What they shot is what was going on. Today everything is so easy to edit in post, compositing and faking everything, that psychologically we can never looks at new stuff with the same respect as the old stuff. It needs to be twice as good, to be as good. 8:35 BTW if you like Cate Blanchet, she just did a movie called TAR which was awesome and really shows her acting chops, while restoring my faith in movie makers of today knowing their craft.
Great episode but one thing that I disagree with is that Lindbergh and Avedon not only didn't learn from each other but ignore each other for years in the industry because of their approaches are so different. I remember Lindbergh talking about one instance in an interview. Also, the industrial theme was inspired by his interest in his home town at the time and German expressionist films.
From observing Peter Lindbergh's photographs it appears that he tells stories with his cameras and models. That's what makes them interesting. They're not just models in clothing.
This is a prime example of a great collaboration 12:52 Madonna inspired by her former dance teacher Martha Grahams " Lamentation" by Peter Lindbergh for Harper's Bazaar, May 1994 These pictures are sublime!
You illustrated the exact thing I do not like about Peter's work -- you can describe allot of the influences in his images but you can't put a finger on what he's language is, other than a set of relatively formal criteria (i.e. b/w, naturalistic, external influences, ...etc.)... He did some great work, yes, I really love several of his photographs, but if you look more broadly, for example, his Vogue editorials, they are all quite similar to one another, same structure, same form, same types of images, same "language of influences"... if that is his style, maybe, but I'd like there to be more (e.g. like with: Guy Bourdin, Saul Leiter, Horst P Horst, Erwin Blumenfeld, Edward Steichen, ...) IMHO
I do love all of those photos . I never thought about how fashion photos can show history like that . I love it . I find women beautiful to . Those models in the beginning … I always thought they looked that way due to make up ( perhaps they have it on in a way that looks natural or they are just that beautiful lol ) but if that’s no makeup , wow , they are stunning . Even women that don’t look all sculptural lol like the models , I see as beautiful. I’m an artist so I guess there’s an essence I can see in photos . These are just great !
The unifying theme for me is understated timeless elegance. Lindberghs work, unlike DeMarchelier, or LaChappelle’s or Avedon’s is dead serious and requires the clothes never “pop” and the beautiful models never look dumb.
the opening explanation is quite confusing. the photos that were filed away and not immediately published (by american vogue) were the white shirt ones. the one that was voted important to fashion history was the one with naomi, which ran as a cover for british vogue as planned. the explanation makes it sound like all the pictures came from the same session, which they did not. two separate commissions (i believe), and two different vogues
Did you know that Hans Feurer, a swiss photographer, was the important source of inspiration for Peter. When you look at Feurer's early work e.g. for Comme de Garcons, you'll recognize that very fast.
Therefore - for all you said - I appreciate P.L. most: vivid, naturally looking, casually, humanly, very close to the models and the spectator as well. That's the way i like it more than any kind of reserved attitudinizing as almost all other fashion photographers do their job. Fine presentation, Alex, regards RR.
I enjoy your commentary. Since you frequently refer to the works of other photographers, I commend to you the you tube channel "Legend Photographers" which has a growing list of the work of a number of prominent photographers. You don't need to buy the book.
Sanders' influence on Lindbergh is evident. Sanders unified German society through difference and Lindbergh nailed that concept accurately by subveriting its polarity in socially and aesthetically. What he documented was a shift in perception and behaviour of women. He was (and still is) a visual one off. In regard to the work Hine, he perhaps felt the sense of dignity that the former delivered in his photographs of the vulnerable and, at that time of these shots, models were pretty much beautiful dolls but modelling ws not really a job per se> A little bit like childrens on the mills: they worked but had no rights like adult workers. Im glad that you spotted that.