Biography - Horst P. Horst:

1906        Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann born 14 August in Weissenfels-an-der-Salle, second son of Max Bohrmann and his wife Klara, nee Schonbrodt. 
His father is a wealthy shopkeeper (he runs a thriving hardware business), has wide-ranging interests and is a member of the local Masonic lodge;
he later attends the philosopher Graf Keyserling’s ‘School of Wisdom’, founded in Darmstadt in 1920; meets the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore as
well as Josephine Baker.

1913        Horst’s mother is admitted temporarily to a sanatorium.

1914        On the outbreak of the First Worl War, Horst’s father is called up to serve on the      Western Front, not to return until the end of the war in 1918.

The 1920s  The family’s financial situation is consolidated quickly after the war; Horst’s father is the first in Weissenfels to buy a car.  Through his
Aunt Grete, whose house in Weimar is a meeting place for numerous artists, Horst meets Eva Weidemann, a student of dance and drama at the Bauhaus. 
She arouses his interest in avant-garde art; he is soon familiar with the latest developments in dance, theatre, painting, and architecture.  He spends a
year in Switzerland, being treated for a lung disease.  In the late ‘20s Horst begins to study at the Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule.  Friends made there
include many sons and daughters of wealthy Hamburg families, such as Mirzel Darboven, daughter of the coffee importer.  Horst writes to Le Corbusier,
asking him for an apprenticeship in his Paris architectural office.  Le Corbusier agrees.

 1930        Horst goes to Paris at the beginning of the year to train under Le Corbusier.  He makes friends with Robert de Saint-Jean and Julien
Green and visits many galleries and museums.  He meets Vogue photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene.  He spends the summer
in Berlin as the guest of brother and sister Francesco and Eleonora von Mendelssohn; highly cultured and musical, they introduce him to the
theatre world.  Eleonora plays in the Max Rienhardt Ensemble.  Horst meets Gustav Grundgens and Erich Maria Remarque.  In the winter he
travels to England with Huene.  Among  others they visit the Ashcombe home of photographer Cecil Beaton, who is working for British Vogue.

 1931        Horst’s association with Vogue begins in the spring, thanks to Huene: he introduces him to fashion designer Carl Erickson and
his wife, as well as to Dr Mehemed Agha, art director of Vogue in New York.  Shortly afterwards he begins work as a photographer in
Vogue’s Paris studio.  His first photo appears in the French November edition.  In the winter he travels to the South of France with Huene.

At the beginning of the year Vogue publisher Conde Nast invites Horst to work for him in the USA for six months.  He arrives in New York in the
spring.  Portraits of Bette Davis.  Dismissed by Conde Nast before the end of his contract due to differences in opinion.  From the autumn he stays
for several months in Huene’s house in Hammamet, Tunisia.

1930        First exhibition in the La Plume d’Or Gallery in Paris; reviewed by Janet Flanner in the New Yorker.

 1934    In February Horst works in England: photographs of Noel Coward and Yvonne     Printemps.  Portraits of Lisa Fonssagrives,
Natasha Paley, Cole Porter and Elsa Schiaparelli in Paris.

 1935        Huene moves to Harper’s Bazaar at the beginning of the year; Horst takes over his job at Vogue in Paris.  Soon afterwards
Conde Nast invites him back to New York.  Short trip to Hollywood; he photographs Katherine Hepburn and George Cukor. 
His return to Paris is followed by a holiday at Eleonora von Mendelssohn’s Austrian home, Schloss Kammer on the Attersee. 
Returns to New York in the autumn.

 1936        Meets Luchino Visconti while staying in Paris at the beginning of the year; start of a lifelong friendship.  Holiday at
Schloss Kammer with Huene in July; excursion to Venice.  Returns to New York in the autumn.

 1937        Horst rents an apartment in Sutton Place, New York, with Huene.  In the summer he meets Coco Chanel.  Holiday at
Schloss Kammer in September.

 1938        Autumn: Horst’s first exhibition in the USA – portraits and fashion photography in Germain Seligman’s Art Gallery,
New York.  In December he photographs Toscanini in New York.

 1939        Travels to Greece with Huene in the spring.  In June Horst meets Thornton Wilder and Jean Cocteau in Paris.  In July he
stays in Schuls-Tarasp (Engadine, Switzerland) and returns to New York in September.  Outbreak of the Second World War.

 1940        Horst applies for US citizenship.

 1941        11 December: Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the United States.

 1942        In the summer Horst passes a medical for the US army.  Death of Conde Nast (September).  Horst is called up for 15
October, but the order is postponed two days beforehand.

 1943        Horst joins the US army on 2 July; his first posting is to Camp Union, Long Island, followed by basic training in Fort
Belvoir, Virginia.  21 October: sworn in on the Constitution of the USA, receives US citizenship as Horst P. Horst.  Becomes
an army photographer, some of his work is for Belvoir Castle, the local forces’ magazine.

 1944        At the end of the year – while Horst is still stationed in Fort Belvoir – his first book, Photographs of a Decade, appears in New
York.  Work for the weekly magazine Outfit, and for Yank.

1935        Horst photographs US president Harry S. Truman.  Vogue has meantime put together a new team of photographers, including
Cecil Beaton and Irving Penn; nevertheless, Horst receives a new contract when he is released from the army.  Travels to Mexico.

1936        Horst works for Vogue in Paris.  He meets many of his old friends and photographs Gertrude Stein, Leon Blum, Romain Rolland
and Oscar Dominguez.  Back in New York he continues work on his second book, Patterns From Nature, a collection of plant
still lifes.  Horst’s long-cherished plan of building himself a house in Oyster Bay, Long Island, and settling there, takes on concrete shape.

1937        Horst moves into the house in Oyster Bay.  Christian Dior, Niki de Gunzburg and Salvador Dali are among the first visitors. 
In the spring Horst meets British diplomat Valentine Lawford in New York.  In the summer he travels to Paris and Venice; he
photographs Misia Sert, Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais.  Returns to Oyster Bay in September.  In the autumn he is visited there
by Cecil Beaton.  In the winter Horst and Lawford travel through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba.

1938        Goes to London and Paris. Photographs English country homes.

1939        In July Horst and Lawford travel to Beirut, via London, Venice, and Rome.  Next stops are Damascus, Dera (Syria), and
Baghdad.  They go on to Tehran and spend two weeks in Iran, followed by visits to Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem.  Return
to Paris, where Horst photographs the latest fashions for Vogue.  Part of the autumn spent in California.

1940        Second trip to Iran in the spring.  In Tehran he meets Lawford, who is working at the British Embassy there.  In the region
between Chalus and Gurgan, near the Soviet border, they are twice arrested, suspected of spying.

1941        Coco Chanel visits Horst in February in Oyster Bay.  American Vogue closes down its New York studio; the photographers
now work in their own ateliers.  Horst rents the apartment previously occupied by the painter Pavel Tchelitchew on the East
Side to use as a studio.  In December he travels to Rome and Kitzbuhel.

1942        In January Horst goes to Berlin, via Munich.  He sees his mother for the first time since the war.  In February he returns to
Paris to photograph the spring fashions for Vogue.  In March he photographs Suzy Parker in Kitzbuhel, then goes on to
Rome where he meets Luchino Visconti.  An increase in work for House and Garden, which started in the late ‘40s.

1954/55 Horst spends part of each summer in the Tyrol.

1956        Travels to Germany and Austria in the summer.

1957        Numerous advertising contracts in the USA.

1956        Travels to Marrakesh (Morocco) in January.  In the summer Horst photographs celebrities and their homes in Germany and
Austria, then Manzu and Moravia in Italy.  He visits Visconti in Rome.  On his way back he photographs Herbert von Karajan
in the Tyrol and Ingrid Bergman in Paris.  Large exhibition in the USA: travel photography in the Country Art Gallery, Long
Island, and ‘Twenty-Five Years of Portraits’ in the Sagittarius Gallery, Manhatten.

1957        Advertising shots in Jamaica, Florida, and the Bahamas at the beginning of the year.  In the spring and summer Horst
works in Germany and Austria.  In October he buys a mountain farm in the Tyrol.

1958        Advertising work in Florida.  Spends the spring and summer renovating his farm.  In September he returns to New York via Amsterdam.

1959        Diana Vreeland becomes editor-in-chief of American Vogue.  She spurs Horst on to tackle an entirely new area; series of
photos illustrating the lifestyle of international high society become one of his specialties in the ‘60s, alongside fashion and
advertising.  From now onwards Horst spends nearly all of his time travelling, on both sides of the Atlantic.

1960        January: advertising photos in Florida and Hawaii.  In February Horst sets off on a two-month round-the-world trip: he goes
to California, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Nepal, Egypt, and Rome.  The new Vogue series begins in August with a
photo-report on Consuela Vanderbilt-Balsan, the former Duchess of Marlborough.  Death of Horst’s mother.

1961        In January Huene visits Horst in Oyster Bay.  August: the New York premiere of Visconti’s first film, The Leopard. 
Horst photographs the Rothschilds in Chateau Mounton, the Windsors in Paris and Emilio Pucci in Florence.

1962        Travels to France, England, and Ireland for Vogue; in June spends several weeks in Copenhagen working on the
special edition on Denmark.

1963        Works in California and Hawaii at the beginning of the year.  In February and March he photographs German Baroque
and Rococo churches for the next Christmas edition of Vogue.  Travels to Italy – visits the Agnellis in Piedmont and Cy
Twombly in Rome, among others – and England.  In December he works in Hawaii.

1964        Horst photographs his own house in Oyster Bay for the Vogue series.  During the early part of the year he is commissioned by Vogue to take photographs on Capri and in Germany, France, Vienna and England.  In May he visits Coco Chanel in Paris.  He sees her for the last time.

1965        Photos for Vogue in – among other places – Venezuela, Portugal, Virginia and Texas.

1956        Publication of Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens, People with photos by Horst and text by Valentine Lawford.  Several
trips to France and Italy for Vogue in the spring/summer.  Horst is in Venice when he hears of the death of George
Hoyninger-Huene (9 September).

1957        May and June spent in Normandy, Rome and Paris.

1958        Work trips to Guadeloupe and the Bahamas.  Horst works on his book, Salute to the Thirties, which contains portraits
by himself and Huene.  It is published a year later.

1959        Coco Chanel dies in January.  Diana Vreeland leaves Vogue, although her celebrities series continues into the mid-‘70s. 
Horst works in France and Italy.  Due to pressure and time he is forced to turn down Visconti’s invitation to take the stills
during the filming of Death in Venice.  The next years are taken up chiefly with work for House and Garden.

1960        Horst works in Mexico (March) and in France (May).  In June he travels to Istanbul and Romania where he photographs
many of the old frescoed churches and monasteries in Transsylvania and Wallachia.  Later he goes to Barcelona.

1961        Commissioned by Vogue, Horst visits the Rothschilds near Bordeaux and art historian Douglas Cooper in his chateau in Provence.

1975    January: private trip to Leningrad and Moscow.  March: death of Luchino  Visconti.

1976        March: exhibition in the Sonnabend Gallery, New York.

1977        Exhibition at the Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York.

1978        Several work trips to France for American Vogue and House and Garden.  In August he spends a week in Greece. 
In September Horst appears on TV in Hamburg, then goes on to Switzerland.  From December once again he photographs
Paris haute couture for French Vogue.  Richard J. Tardiff becomes his agent.

1979        Horst works in Santo Domingo (April/May) and Munich (early May).  In July/August he photographs Axel Springer in Berlin. 
In September he travels to Morocco: portraits of Yves Saint Laurent in his house in Marrakesh.  In November he takes photos
for French Vogue in Paris.

1980        In the ‘80s Horst works for English, Italian and Spanish Vogue as well as for their American and French counterparts;
and also now for Vanity Fair.  Exhibitions at the Neikrug and Staley Wise Galleries in New York.

1981-83      Horst works on two books.

1984     The Stanley Wise Gallery becomes Horst’s gallery in New York.

1956        Publication of Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens, People with photos by Horst and text by Valentine Lawford.  Several
trips to France and Italy for Vogue in the spring/summer.  Horst is in Venice when he hears of the death of George
Hoyninger-Huene (9 September).

1957        May and June spent in Normandy, Rome and Paris.

                 May-July: the ‘Horst – Photography 1931-84’ exhibition in the Fortuny Palace,

                 Venice.  Richard J. Tardiff becomes Horst’s manager.

1986    August: exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery in London.

1987        Exhibition at the Stadtmuseum, Munich (September-November) and the Kuntshalle, Bremen (November 1987-January 1988).

1988    Numerous exhibitions: in London (Hamilton’s), Frankfurt (Fotografie Forum),

Zurich (Nikon Live Galerie), Hamburg (Museum fur Kunst and Gewerbe).  Horst recieves the Lifetime Achievement Award of the
Council of Fashion Designers of America.  Exhibition at the Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto (October).

1989    In April Horst receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford.

Exhibitions at Hamilton’s in London, the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles (May) and the Holly Solomon Gallery, New York (July).

1990    Exhibitions at the Galleria in Houston, Texas (February) and the Jane Corkin

Gallery, Toronto (October).  Exhibition of platinum prints of his photos from 1935 to 1989 in the Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta,
Georgia (December 1990-January 1991).

1991    Preparations for an exhibition to be held from March to September in the Musee des Arts de la Mode in the Louvre.

1999    Horst Dies in November at age 93

2001    Work shown in AIPAD Photography Show in New York through the Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

 2002    Work shown in New York Armory Photography Show through Fay Gold Gallery