Jeanloup Sieff was born in Paris on the 3^rd of November 1933. He first started taking photographs at the age of 14, after being given a camera as a birthday present. He wanted to be a film director, but became a freelance reporter were he started working for Elle in 1955, he was just 22. In 1956 he progressed as a fashion photographer and by 1966 he worked with magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Glamour, Paris-Match, plus many more. He won a number of prizes, including the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in Paris in 1981 and Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1992. He believed that if he had not received a camera as a birthday present, that he may have never been a photographer. He sadly died in Paris on the 20^th September 2000 aged just 66.

This book is a unique monograph of Jeanloup Sieff’s photography. Here Jeanloup retraces his encounters and memories through his work produced over a 40 year period. The book is divided into four chapters, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Here you find a collection of black and white photography, taken within the fields of fashion, advertising and portrait photography.

Sieff put this collection of photographs together to reminisce about the years gone by. He exclaims that his photographs do not bear witness to anything, have no message to convey or offer any point of view and that they were simply taken for pleasure.

Sieff said that his only wish was for the pictures within this book would gently fade away, leaving only the memories of passing moments. He believed as long as the living remember loved ones that are dead, they will never really be dead. I myself agree with this statement. It is nice to look back at photographs and remember the dead how they once were.

As I sit enjoying a cup of coffee on a sunny but cold Saturday afternoon, I flick though the pages of Sieff’s book admiring the images displayed to me. I then realise that for Jeanloup this book was filled with memories of the past, but for me it is filled with evidence of past events and frozen moments in time. Photography has always interested me. How a moment in time, a situation, an emotion or an event can be captured and therefore never aging or changing.

Only a meaning of a photograph can change. For one person a photograph can be a memory of a time gone by, for another it is a glimpse of what has been. We all see and read things differently. For me the photographs within this book are intriguing, somewhat mystical and often at times filled with romantic nostalgia. Dancers and nudes were two recurring themes within his work. He captures the elegance of the nude female figure beautifully.

One of my favourite pictures in this book is ‘Harper’s Bazaar. Rome, 1992’, pg 111. The photograph is an editorial fashion photograph taken for Harper’s Bazaar. It’s very surreal and there is a huge sculpture of the hand in the background in contrast with the model which draws you in and arouses curiosity. It was taken in the Palazzo dei Conservatori Museum, Rome.

Seiff photographed many celebrities over his 50 year career, amongst them Louis Armstrong, Alfred Hitchcock, Twiggy and Yves Saint-Laurent to name but a few. I would recommend taking a few minutes to open this book and flick through the pages and you will see many of these figures immortalised through his photographs.

Tags: Advertising Photographer, Advertising Photography, Alfred Hitchcock, Art Direction, Black and white photography, Celebrities, Creative Advertising, Creative Impact, Creativity, Design, fashion, Fashion Photography, Harper's Bazaar, Jeanloup Sieff, Louis Armstrong, Photography, Twiggy, Yves Saint-Laurent

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