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•COMMUNICATION & CIE
GÉRARD MUSY
Back to Backstage
EXHIBITION FROM 19 SEPTEMBER TO 7 NOVEMBER 2013
GALERIE DES NOUVELLES IMAGES - HÔTEL SCRIBE PARIS
In the Eighties, Gérard Musy was one of the first fashion photographers to enter the backstage world
of fashion shows. At a time when photographers were all milling around the catwalks, Musy went
behind the scenes to capture the other side of a picture highly coveted today. Life in all its feverish,
sometimes chaotic commotion can be seen in these backstage areas, still known as "fitting rooms".
Here Musy made play with extreme proximity, basing his image on the present moment and getting
right up to his subjects in the very heart of all the excitement. His lens fixed the immediate action and
energy of those golden moments when Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz and Kristen McManamy were
taking their first steps, soon to leave their mark on a whole generation of models. Gérard Musy was a
forerunner at the time, and the iconic American magazine Splash scored a hit in being the first to
publish his ground-breaking pictures in its October '88 issue.
Abandoning fashion photography's original goal – to show women wearing clothes –, Gérard Musy
transformed this essential requirement in a twinkling of his highly perceptive eye, zooming in on a
whole world, upturning established codes with bold and forceful originality, and revealing what really
goes on in a fashion show.
The Galerie des Nouvelles Images in the Hôtel Scribe Paris offers an opportunity to discover these
explorations of the instant: an immersion in those legendary years through twenty-odd black and
white photographs, taken in the seething backstage excitement of fashion shows laid on by Thierry
Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Patrick Kelly, Azzedine Alaïa and many others.
About Gérard Musy
Born in 1959 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Gérard Musy studied History of Art at Geneva University, with a dissertation on the photographer
Robert Franck. In 1987, he began photographing top fashion designers' collections and night life in Paris, London and New York. He has received
several awards, including two federal Swiss prizes. His works have been exhibited in international art museums and galleries including the Musée
de l’Elysée in Lausanne and the Staley-Wise Gallery in New York. Since 1991 he has lived in Paris, where he continues to work on personal and
commercial projects. He has worked for Emporio Armani, Paco Rabanne and other major names in fashion, and his photos regularly appear in
international magazines including Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Vogues Hommes, Skin Two, Pure, Yummy and Exit. In 2003, he published a
book, "Lustre", with Stemmle, prefaced by William A. Ewing. His works are conserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Fondation
Suisse pour la Photographie in Winterthur and the Musée de L’Elysée in Lausanne. Gérard Musy is represented in Paris by the Esther Woerdehoff
Gallery.
Mounia, défilé Yves Saint-Laurent, Paris 1988 © Gérard Musy, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Naomi Campbell, défilé Yves Saint-Laurent, Paris, 1988 © Gérard Musy, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Naomi Campbell et Tatjana Patitz, défilé Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, 1987 © Gérard Musy, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Défilé Christian Dior, Paris, 1988 © Gérard Musy, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Iman et Katoucha, défilé Thierry Mugler, Paris, 1988 © Gérard Musy, Courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
GÉRARD MUSY / Back to Backstage / Avec l’aimable soutien de la Galerie Esther Woerdehoff / www.gerardmusy.com / www.ewgalerie.com
19 SEPTEMBER ˃ 7 NOVEMBER 2013 / Galerie des Nouvelles Images - Hôtel Scribe Paris / 1, rue Scribe 75009 Paris / www.hotel-scribe.com
Opening: 26th September 2013, to 6:30 pm / Visuals on simple request.
PRESS
Christian Lemoine de La Salle & Christina Mavridis / P. +33 6 08 56 23 91 - +33 6 03 85 04 31 / E. [email protected] - [email protected]
•COMMUNICATION & CIE / Béatrice Manson - Christian Lemoine de La Salle - Christina Mavridis / www.comcie.com