February 6th – April 4th
Gérard Musy is a celebrated Paris fashion photographer (and the host of a super fetish dinner party at his lovely country home). Gérard has produced the most stylish fetish images I have seen in 35 years of publishing fetish photography. Now, the famous Leica camera company is hosting an exhibition of Gérard’s nightlife and backstage fashion show photographs of the golden era of the 1980s, when energy, fun and showing off were in vogue.
The title of the exhibition , “Eclats”, means glare, brightness, glitter, lustre, brilliancy, vividness…. The perfect words for depicting the eighties decade. The subtitle “Late ‘80s Fashion” refers to that period when Gérard was a fashion photographer in New York (see bio below). He still was able to have the last glimpse of that incredible period of time. (And he met me – but that’s another story…)
The opening night is on Thursday 6th February 2020. The exhibition ends 4th April 2020. The exhibition is at the main Leica store in Paris, in the very chic Faubourg Saint-Honoré…
105-109, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris
10am – 7pm
What if you are a serious collector but cannot get to Paris? For further info and buying photographs you can contact Gaëlle at gaelle@leica-camera.com or Esther Woerdehoff Gallery at galerie@ewgalerie.com
Here are some pictures exhibited for sale at the Leica Gallery with a fetish flavour…
* Your invitation to the show
* Cindy Crawford in a vinyl trench coat, New York, 1989
* Naomi Campbell with patent leather thigh high boots
* Thierry Mugler Fashion Show, Paris, 1988
* Skin Two latex dress, Marylebone, London, 1989
Scroll down below the photos for Gérard Musy’s bio
Your invitation
Cindy Crawford, photo by Musy
Naomi Campbell, photo by Musy
Naomi Campbell and Iman Bowie, photo by Musy
Naomi Campbell, photo by Musy
Naomi Campbell, photo by Musy
Skin Two latex dress, photo by Musy
Thierry Mugler, photo by Musy
…
About Gérard Musy
As early as 1983, and still a student, Gérard Musy began to photograph nightlife in iconic cities, including New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Geneva. He photographed this emerging desire for festivity, where nightclubs are a new space for sensual and playful pleasures. He captured from very close up this nocturnal world of transgression, not only as an insider but also an actor in the scene. Musy navigated the arty nocturnal performances of the East Village in New York and of the Danceteria in 1983, the eccentric sex-post-punk of the Batcave in London – prefiguring the fetish / S&M scene towards the end of the same decade – and the Parisian trendy nights at the Palace where the Nouveaux Créateurs rediscover the sexualised body.
These were brilliant, glowing, dancing, fun and carefree years where the pleasure of seeing and being seen was crucial. His work on this theme was recognised by the Swiss federal award for Applied Arts in 1987, exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée in1991 and published by Esther Woerdehoff (Benteli editions) in 1994.
In 1985, Musy was present at the early fetish S&M evenings at the Maîtresse Club in London’s Soho district. A massive societal movement thereafter swept the world for over a decade. Gérard is the only photographer to have followed this movement from its genesis until its apotheosis in The Skin Two Rubber Ball in London, as in the grandest clubs of New York and Paris.
In 1986 he graduated with an Art History degree from the University of Geneva, for which he produced a research paper on the photographer Robert Frank, who he met on several occasions.
In 1986, Musy was the first fashion photographer to be granted exclusive access to the changing rooms of fashion shows. In 1988 he published his first images of backstage as a two-page spread in the trendiest magazine in New York: Splash. He captures the frenetic life in the space between intimacy and representation.
From 1987 to 1991 Musy lived in New York. He innovated in fashion photography by naturally investigating life in the non-pose: vivaciousness after the over-sized poses of Herb Ritz and Bruce Weber. In sensual black and white or in radiant colour, he always seeks a shining and radiant energy. He is always in movement, just like the model: a double game. Musy photographed for ground-breaking international fashion magazines including Details, Pure, Yummy, Massiv, Exit, Skin Two… and for references like Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Hommes, Glamour, Jalouse, Joyce, Sportswear International, etc.
Discover Gérard Musy’s website: http://gerardmusy.com/
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Two years in the planning, the event represents a new concept for the industry, with the focus very much upon a celebration of female sexuality in an atmosphere simultaneously glamorous, decadent and sexual.
