Polaroids

Guy Bourdin’s Polaroids collects 98 instant photographs by the fashion photographer, many of them unpublished before this book.

Editions Xavier Barral of Paris issued it as a 128-page hardcover with a text by Oliviero Toscani. Booksellers say it was published to coincide with the 2009 exhibition Guy Bourdin, ses films. FAULT magazine’s review describes the pictures as ranging from casual seaside erotica to darkened interiors where disembodied legs and arms poke into the frame. In its account they step outside the safety of a fashion shoot, and Bourdin cuts the female form as the Surrealists did, often cropping above the waist.

Bourdin (1928–1991) is best known for controversial fashion photography and is described as a protégé of Man Ray. FAULT sees an edge of menace or discomfort in his eroticism, carried by surrealistic props and implied narratives.