“For some people the word “elegance” has acquired objectionable, snobbish connotations. But I myself prefer to regard elegance as an attractive and admirable - if admittedly rare - human attribute: a form of physical and mental grace that has nothing to do with pretension or over refinement or an excess of money to spend. Unlike Huene, who had absorbed an infallible sense of elegance from his upbringing, I had to invent it on my own: more exactly, to learn gradually to recognize elegance in others and try to portray it in my photographs.”
~ Horst P Horst
In the gallery I am often asked what is my favourite Horst image, the one I would take with me to have on a desert island to stare at in my solitude. For sure a difficult question to answer as there are so many great ones to choose from. But if my arm were twisted I think I would have to choose this one.
It is the image of his that I have marveled at the most in all the years I have been collecting his work. The model has the perfect face and the attitude and the mood Horst created is the epitome of the word he alludes to above. “Elegance”.
