BOURDIN Guy (Photographer)

An exercise of self-satisfaction, stimulated by the looks of John Travolta, mirrors the 1970s obsession with sex, individuality and status. The glamour of sheer fabrics and flashing make-up serves as a canvas for Guy Bourdin's cold yet unmistakably sexual vision. Daringly showing the symbiosis between savvy disco decadence and stardom, this image is finely in tune with the psyche of Bourdin's times. A Pop-Surrealist, he began to work for French Vogue in 1960, recommended by photographer Man Ray and couturier Jacques Fath. He concentrated on editorial work for this publication alongside advertising campaigns for Charles Jourdan shoes and Bloomingdales' lingerie range. An obsessive master colourist, Bourdin is said to have left actress Ursula Andrews lying naked on a glass table for six hours while searching Paris for the right shade of rose petals to match her skin. 

Also look up for Barbieri, Fath, Jourdan, Man Ray, Mert & Marcus, Newton