Bourdin’s seductive images shaped commercial and fine-art photography throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.

While legendary French photographer Guy Bourdin is best known for his take on surrealism, “his influences were very diverse,” as his son Samuel Bourdin put it. Interview magazine. “From pop culture to high art, 1950s and 1960s American comics, hyper-realist painters, classic filmmakers like Erich von Stroheim, horror movies, Pre-Raphaelite painters, classical music, James Brown.”

His attitude towards life, Samuel noted, is best summed up by his saying: “It is better to live five minutes of happiness than a whole life conventionally.” And it is better to surprise than appease.

Born in France in 1928, Bourdin, who died in 1991, has had works exhibited and collected in some of the world’s most prestigious museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery and London’s Tate Modern, The Jeu de Paume, the Getty Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Her career spanned more than 40 years and she worked with major fashion magazines, as well as Chanel, Charles Jourdan, Pentax, and Bloomingdale’s, among others, creating lush, daring images unlike anything else.

While he’s never had name recognition like, say, Helmut Newton, Bourdin’s work is taking on new life thanks to something he never could have imagined: blockchain technology.

The Guy Bourdin Estate is a key contributor to Fellowship, a new photography platform “dedicated to bringing the most acclaimed names in photography to Web3” led by a collective of artists and creatives including Holly Hay, Chadwick Tyler and Alejandro Cartagena. by Wallpaper*. Among others.

“Fellowship will present NFT collections of works by living artists, emerging photographers, and artist estates like Bourdin’s, “marking a turning point for photography on the blockchain.”

By creating a “new path for artists to present their work on the blockchain” and by enabling a new generation of collectors, “Fellowship commissions and exhibits photography in an accessible way through a revolving spotlight on top photographic talent. , from the seminal artists to the most prominent”. in the morning.”

In addition to Bourdin, the Fellowship’s first series of NFT photography exhibitions includes work by Joel Meyerowitz, Gregory Crewdson, and Joel Sternfeld. We spoke to Frederic Arnal, director of the Guy Bourdin Estate, about his life and legacy.

Why is Bourdin’s work so important?

Guy Bourdin pushed the boundaries of fashion photography in the mid-1950s, at a time when his primary focus was primarily to illustrate elegance. His single-image narratives, both complex and compelling, refocused the work of fine art photographers and shaped commercial and fine art photography throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, in a way that still resonates today. A longtime contributor to French Vogue, Bourdin’s work brought a new level of consideration to image-making in fashion photography and beyond.

What new paths did you open as a photographer?

Surrealist art and commercial and fashion photography had been considered distinctly different fields during the 1950s. Guy Bourdin was the first artist to meld these worlds with his offbeat work, elevating storytelling within fashion photography above even of the products being promoted. His images consolidated fashion photography, and in a way fashion itself, as the narrative art we know today.

Why is your work still relevant?

Creating narratives is an art unto itself, and only a handful of artists have mastered it in the 150-year history of photography. To this day, Bourdin’s work serves as a seminal example of frame photography within the art and commercial photography space for both its iconic aesthetic and innovative spirit.

How will Fellowship help amplify that?

One of the Fellowship’s goals is to make the art of photography, from historically significant collections to newer bodies of work, accessible to a broader audience through Web3. Collaboration with the Guy Bourdin Estate and other artists’ archives has already revealed new ways of understanding these seminal works. And he has invited a new generation of artists to explore Bourdin’s artistic vision and branch out on their own.

What is Bourdin’s legacy to the world of photography?

A spirit of relentless innovation that radiates through his life’s work.

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