Jeanloup Sieff's photography delights in the pleasurable. When in 1954 he put aside ideas of a glamorous life in film or on the French Riviera working as a gigolo, it was for a career in photojournalism, driven by a different kind of pleasure-seeking: 'the physical pleasure of rendering certain shapes, the pleasure of those maddening lights, the pleasure taken in composing and living through spaces and meetings'.
His photographs, however, communicate an undying fascination with the glossy world of the movies, of pleasurable lives lived under the Hollywood sky, of movie-still photography, where a moment of glamour is paused with all the expressionistic lighting effects of the film set still glowing.
Sieff's work is frequently described in terms of Proustian remembrance, an interpretation fuelled by his use of deliberately evocative titles, like that of his monograph, Demain le temps sera plus vieux. However, he notes 'if I have caught myself struggling to remember, it was, if not a pretence, at least premature, in that I only ever used photography for my own pleasure - even if I then bewailed the vanished pleasure which my pictures brought back to me'.
Though his Vogue fashion shoots of fur-trimmed and pampered London in the 1960s are some of the most recognizable of the decade, Sieff also took countless opportunities to photograph dancers. Possibly his most important project is his chronicle of dancers who have appeared with the Paris Opera Ballet, including Rudolph Noureev, Carolyn Carlson, Claire Motte and Nina Vyroubova. If there is a typical Sieff model, she is a teenage dancer with gathered up hair, pictured at practice, flexed and craning.
Sieff argues that dancers have a 'corporeal intelligence' that enables them to fill space with their movements. 'Among the models I photograph for the fashion magazines, I recognize immediately the ones that have studied dance. They know how to carry their heads, they have a certain way of sitting and a natural elegance that the mastery of their bodies has shaped forever.'
One of Sieff's earliest images is of a spindly blonde ballet student at Boris Kniaseff's dance school in Lausanne. The image reminded him of a Giacometti sculpture, and it is an ideal to which he constantly returns. Inevitably Sieff's photography responds to the culturally pervasive images of dancers created by Degas and Seurat, and of Rodin's bathing women. His photographs occasionally revisit poses made by Seurat's models, but in the language of the fashion shoot.
There is a more politically engaged and introspective side to Sieff's work which, though he downplays its importance, addresses his own wartime rootlessness and wanderings. This side is revealed most clearly in his cracked and brittle-seeming photographs of Death Valley and the shots of unpopulated landscapes in Scotland.
After narrowly avoiding the draft for the Algerian War in 1958, Seiff joined the Magnum photographic agency in 1958 - what he called 'taking the holy orders of photography' - and worked for them first in Rome, covering the death of Pope Pius XII, then in Turkey, Greece and Poland. Characteristically though, he left for the demi-monde of New York and the attractions of Harpers Bazaar magazine.
Jeanloup Sieff's photography delights in the pleasurable. When in 1954 he put aside ideas of a glamorous life in film or on the French Riviera working as a gigolo, it was for a career in photojournalism, driven by a different kind of pleasure-seeking: 'the physical pleasure of rendering certain shapes, the pleasure of those maddening lights, the pleasure taken in composing and living through spaces and meetings'.
His photographs, however, communicate an undying fascination with the glossy world of the movies, of pleasurable lives lived under the Hollywood sky, of movie-still photography, where a moment of glamour is paused with all the expressionistic lighting effects of the film set still glowing.
Sieff's work is frequently described in terms of Proustian remembrance, an interpretation fuelled by his use of deliberately evocative titles, like that of his monograph, Demain le temps sera plus vieux. However, he notes 'if I have caught myself struggling to remember, it was, if not a pretence, at least premature, in that I only ever used photography for my own pleasure - even if I then bewailed the vanished pleasure which my pictures brought back to me'.
Though his Vogue fashion shoots of fur-trimmed and pampered London in the 1960s are some of the most recognizable of the decade, Sieff also took countless opportunities to photograph dancers. Possibly his most important project is his chronicle of dancers who have appeared with the Paris Opera Ballet, including Rudolph Noureev, Carolyn Carlson, Claire Motte and Nina Vyroubova. If there is a typical Sieff model, she is a teenage dancer with gathered up hair, pictured at practice, flexed and craning.
Sieff argues that dancers have a 'corporeal intelligence' that enables them to fill space with their movements. 'Among the models I photograph for the fashion magazines, I recognize immediately the ones that have studied dance. They know how to carry their heads, they have a certain way of sitting and a natural elegance that the mastery of their bodies has shaped forever.'
One of Sieff's earliest images is of a spindly blonde ballet student at Boris Kniaseff's dance school in Lausanne. The image reminded him of a Giacometti sculpture, and it is an ideal to which he constantly returns. Inevitably Sieff's photography responds to the culturally pervasive images of dancers created by Degas and Seurat, and of Rodin's bathing women. His photographs occasionally revisit poses made by Seurat's models, but in the language of the fashion shoot.
There is a more politically engaged and introspective side to Sieff's work which, though he downplays its importance, addresses his own wartime rootlessness and wanderings. This side is revealed most clearly in his cracked and brittle-seeming photographs of Death Valley and the shots of unpopulated landscapes in Scotland.
After narrowly avoiding the draft for the Algerian War in 1958, Seiff joined the Magnum photographic agency in 1958 - what he called 'taking the holy orders of photography' - and worked for them first in Rome, covering the death of Pope Pius XII, then in Turkey, Greece and Poland. Characteristically though, he left for the demi-monde of New York and the attractions of Harpers Bazaar magazine.
The great French photographer Jeanloup Sieff died on 20th September 2000 at the Laennec hospital in Paris. He was 66.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Nagoya, Japan, 1995
'Images 95', festival de Vevey, Switzerland, 1995
Institut français de Cracovie, Poland, 1995
Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 1995
Biennale de Nancy, Nancy, France, 1994
'Hommage à 93 derrières.', Galerie Contrejour, Paris, 1994
'Regards sur la mode', Bell Commens Gallery, Tokyo, 1994
'40 ans de mode', Navio Museum, Osaka, Japan, 1993
'40 ans de mode', Art Factory, Sendai, Japan, 1993
'Paris des artistes', l'AFAA, traveling exhibition, China, 1993
'Photofolies', Rodez, France, 1991
'Photographies silencieuses', Crédit Foncier de France, Paris, 1990
Bell Commens Gallery, Tokyo, 1990
'L'année dernière, Comptoir de la Photo, Paris, 1989
Rencontres internationals de la Photographie, Arles, France, 1988
Vision Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 1988
'Paysages', MJC, Amiens, France, 1988
Paco Gallery, Tokyo, 1988
'Torses nus', Mois de la Photo, Athens, Greece, 1987
'Rétrospective', Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1986
Zeit Foto Salon, Tokyo, 1986
'Torses nus', Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France, 1986
Hamilton Gallery, London, 1986
Journées Internationales de la Photo, Montpellier, France, 1986
Amsterdam Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1986
Maison de la Culture de Dunkerque, France, 1985
Festival de Vienne, Saint-André-le-Bas, France, 1985
Festival de Rennes, France, 1984
Festival de Trégor, France, 1984
Centre culturel français, Essen, Germany, 1984
Institute français, Aix-la-Chapelle, France, 1984
Museum Hagen, Germany, 1983
Hamilton Gallery, London, 1983
Institute français, Cologne, Germany, 1983
Novecento Gallery, Palermo, Italy, 1982
Canon Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1982
Galerie Photogramme, Montreal, Canada, 1982
Galerie municipale 'le Château d'eau', Toulouse, France, 1982
FNAC Montparnasse, Mois de la Photo, Paris, 1982
Watari Gallery, Tokyo, 1982
Silver Vision, Tulsa, USA, 1982
Netzhaut Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany, 1981
Fiolet Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1979
Photogalerie Portfolio, Lausanne, France, 1978
Librairie la Hune, Paris, 1978
Galerie Paule Pia, Anvers, France, 1977
Galerie Dieuzaide, Toulouse, France, 1976
Foster White Gallery, Seattle, USA, 1976
'43 portraits de Dames remarquables pour une raison ou une autre, dont quelques payages hautains', Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris, 1976
FNAC Montparnasse, Paris, 1975
Silver Image, Tacoma, USA, 1975
Canon Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1975
Spectrum Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, 1974
Nikon Gallery, Tokyo, 1983
Galerie des Philosophes, Geneva, Switzerland, 1973
Nikon Gallery, Paris, 1972
Les Maisons de la Culture d'Abbeville, Bordeaux, France, 1971, traveling exhibition
Académie d'Art Moderne, Gand, Belgium, 1971
Underground Gallery, New York, 1971
Maisons de la Culture d'Amiens, Amiens, France, 1970
Angers, France, 1970
Tours, France, 1970
Le Havre, France, 1970
Galerie la Demeure, Paris, 1969
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
'Paris, vintages', Hamilton Gallery, London, 1996
'Paris, visages-paysages', Paris, 1996
'Mèdecins sans frontières, Paris, 1991
'Fashion Photography since 1945', Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1991
'Histoire de la Photo de mode', Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria, 1990
'Les prix Niepce', Musée Art moderne', Dunkirk, France, 1990
'Le choix des sens', Revue Clichés au botanique, Brussels, 1989
'20 ans de photo créative en France', Fondation Bayer/AGFA, France, 1988
Rencontres d'Arles, France, 1988
'Palais Garnier vu par.' Opéra de Paris, 1988
'Hommage à Ferrari', Fondation Cartier, Jouy en Josas, France, 1987
'La photographie de mode', Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1985
'Regards sur l'architecture', Angers, France, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', Ministère des Relations extérieures, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', Association Français d'Action Artistique, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', RDA, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', Sweden, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', Denmark, 1984
'Photo française: 10 photographes', Finland, 1984
'La photo française', Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1982
'Photographie de mode - Vogue 1920-1980', Musée Jacquement André, Paris, 1982
'Paris-Paris', Centre George Pompidou, Paris, 1981
'Photoscopies 81', essay on Carolyn Carlson, Centre national d'art contemporain, Paris, 1981
'La photographie de mode française', Galerie Zabriskie, Paris, 1979
'History on Fashion Photography', Rochester Museum, USA, 1977
Galerie Canon, Geneva, Switzerland, 1976
'The Human Image', Museum of Art, Washington University, USA, 1976
'Portfolio 76', galerie Portfolio, Lausanne, France, 1976
'Confrontation 73', Université de Dijon, Dijon, France, 1973
'La photographie française', Varsovie, Poland, 1972
'La photographie française', Moscow, Russia, 1972
Musée Cantini, Marseille, France, 1968
'La jeune photographie française', Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1967
'Photographies de mode', Photokina, Cologne, Germany, 1966
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Paris, visage-paysages, Paris Musées, France, 1996 Kobe-Aid fund, Tokyo, 1996 Gainsbourg, Vade Retro, Paris, 1995 Yves Montand, Vade Retro, Paris, 1995 Dictionnaire de la mode, du Regard, Paris, 1994 Dictionnaire des mots, Bordas, Paris, 1994 Ritratti di fumo, Peliti, Rome, 1994 Les routes du lait, Contrejour, Paris, 1994
Portfolio, Black & White Magazine, interview, Sydney, Australia, 1993 Photographers International, interview with F Horvat, Taiwan, 1993 Il treno, Peliti, Rome, 1993 Rudolph Noureev, Plume, Paris, 1993 Patrick Dupond, Plume, Paris, 1993
'Cimetières 14/18', La Somme, Amiens, France, 1991 Appearences: Fashion Photography Since 1945, J Cape, London, 1991 Entre vues, book interview with Frank Horvat, Seoul, South Korea, 1990 Asahi Camera, Tokyo, 1990 Nippon Camera, Tokyo, 1990 150 Anniversaire de la photographie., Photographic Society of Japan, Tokyo, 1989 5 photographes en Liberté: Essai sur la Révolution, Francom, Paris, 1989 Clichés, Brussels, Belgium, 1989 Photographie magazine, Paris, 1989 Paysages, 3 Cailloux, Amiens, France, 1988
'Marne-la-Ville.', Beba, 1987 Collector's, Los Angeles, USA, 1987 Camera International, Torses Nus, 1986 Photomagazine, June 1986
Dister, Alain, Connaissance des Arts, May 1986
Beaton, Cecil, The Magic Image, 1985
Sieff, Jeanloup, 'Portrait sans garde-fou', Clichés, Brussels, Belgium, November 1985 Carte blanche à., Contrejour, Angénieux, 1984 Planche contact, no 1, June 1984
Walter, Annie, 'Sieff parle de Sieff: L'envie de photo', Photomagazine, September 1984
Walter, Annie, 'Sieff parle de Sieff: Faire l'image', Photomagazine, October 1984
Walter, Annie, 'Sieff parle de Sieff: Balade en Sicile', Photomagazine, December 1984-January 1985
Walter, Annie, 'Sieff parle de Sieff: Photographies de mode', Photomagazine, February 1985
Walter, Annie, 'Sieff parle de Sieff: Back is beautiful', Photomagazine, March 1985
Calvenzi, Giovanna, Il Fotografo, Italy, June 1984 Le Nu français, Janninck, Paris, 1983
Ellis, Ainslie, 'Essences and Ambiguities', British Journal of Photography, London, 9 December 1983
'Photographer's Space', Photo, Japan, December 1983
d'Hooghe, Alain, 'Jeanloup Sieff: Inédits de mode 1960-1964', Clichés, Brussels, November 1983 Passion, special edition on Jeanloup Sieff, April 1983
Merlo, Lorenzo, Jeanloup Sieff: nooit een blow-up type geweest', Foto, The Netherlands, January 1983 Camera, Peterborough, USA, October 1982
Sladovic, Anne, Jeanloup Sieff: Regard et Solitude, Quotidien de Paris, special photography edition, October 1982 Photomagazine, le portrait des stars par les stars du portrait, May 1982 Nikon World, Japan, 1981
Sieff, Jeanloup, 'Monologue Photographie', Culture et Communication, published by le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, no 36, 1981 Photoscopies 81, Jeanloup Sieff: Carolyn Carlson Photo, Sieff et la pub: Images très Libres sur un theme impose, December 1981
Maudery, Guy, Photomagazine Ciné, Kaléscope, un jour avec Jeanloup Sieff, June 1981 Best of Nudes, Tokyo, 1980
Melcher, Russel, 'Jeanloup Sieff', You and Your Camera, London, 1980
Bauret, Gabriel, 'Collected Matter', Zoom, no 73, 1980 Photo Magazine Cinéma, December 1980
Petri, Pier Paolo, Jeanloup Sieff, Il fotografo, Italy, September 1980
Sieff, Jeanloup, 'Hitchcock directs', Foto, June 1980
Jamais, Guy, 'Death Valley', Foto, May 1980 Encyclopédie de la Photo, Elsvier, Brussels, Belgium, 1979
'The sketch of an anthological album presented by the author', Zoom, no 68, 1979
'Death Valley Days', American Photographer, New York, September 1979
Tournier, Michel, Des clefs et des serrures, Denoël, Paris, 1978 Photo, September 1978 Camera, Switzerland, September 1978
'Jag Hattar att var omtyck av idioter., Aktuell Fotografi, Finland, 9 September 1978 US Camera, New York, Autumn 1978 Camera Photo World, New York, August 1978
'Jeanloup Sieff: la Valle della Morta', Nuova Fotografia, Italy, July-August 1978
'Le Routard du Nevada, Photo, May 1978 Masterpiece of erotic photography, Talisman Books, London, 1977
'Die Revolte des Jeanloup Sieff', Photo film, RFA, no 60, 1977
'A Certain image of French Photography', Fondation Nationale de la Photographie, October 1977
'Quand Sieff s'évade', Photo, September 1977 Grand Angle, Phillipe Damperon interview, March-April 1977 Flash Foto, Spain, March 1977
'La Révolte de Jeanloup Sieff', Photo, December 1976
'Jeanloup Sieff inedito', Photo, Spain, no 1, 1976
Schofield, Jack, 'Jeanloup Sieff', Photo Technique, UK, October 1976 Foto, The Netherlands, December 1975
'20 ans de Sieff', Photo, October 1974 Commercial Photo Series, Japan, no 26, Autumn 1974
Vorlet, Jean-Pierre, Photo Amateur, Switzerland, August 1974
Trbuljak, Goran, Spot, Yugoslavia, May 1974 The Image, UK, March 1974
Minguez, Pablo, Nueva Lente, Spain, 1973 Asashi Camera, Japan, October 1973 Progresso Fotografico, Italy, September 1973
'Marco Ferreri par Jeanloup Sieff', Photo, August 1973 Photo World, USA, Summer 1973 Tremlin, Summer 1973
Salbitani, Roberto A, Progresso Fotografico, Italy, February 1972
Gautrand, Jean-Claude, Photo revue, December 1972
'Jeanloup Sieff inédit', Photo, November 1972
'Portfolio', Camera Mainichi, Japan, August 1971 The British Journal of Photography, London, 5 November 1971 Camera Mainichi, Japan, no 8 and no 9, 1971
'A quoi rêve un jeune maître de la mode', Photo, February 1971 Creative Camera, London, 1970
Gautrand, Jean-Claude, Phototribune internationale, Belgium, September 1970
Aalto, Jussi, 'Jeanloup Sieff', Kamera, Finland, July 1970 Camera Mainichi, Japan, no 10, 1970 Populär Fotografi, Sweden, 1970 Photo, March 1969 Photo, October 1967
Sieff, Jeanloup, 'La photo de mode n'existe pas', Techniques Graphiques, October 1967
Fehr, Gertrude, 'Jeanloup Sieff', Foto Prisma, RFA, October 1967 Photography italiana, Italy, March 1967
Porter, Allan, 'Mode et Photographie', Camera, Switzerland, 1966 US Camera Annual, New York, 1965 US Camera Annual, New York, 1963
Laurent, J, J'aime la danse, Rencontre, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1962
Martinez, Roméo, Camera, Lucerne, Switzerland, September 1958
BOOKS AND PORTFOLIOS BY THE ARTIST
Danza, Motta, Milan, Italy, 1996 I had a dream, essay on the actress Kumiko Goto, Asahi, Tokyo, 1995 Hommage à 93 derrières choisis pour leurs qualities plastiques, intellectuelles ou morales, Contrejour, Paris, 1994 Demain le temps sera plus vieux, Contrejour, Paris, 1990 Jeanloup Sieff, Parco, Tokyo, 1988
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, retrospective catalogue, 1986 Borinage 1959, Charleroi, 1986 Torses nus, Contrejour, Paris, 1986 Intimode, agence Safronoff, 1984 Vers les ciels d'or, (Towards the Golden Sky), journal de voyage de Guy de Maupassant en Sicile, Novocento, Palermo, Sicily, 1984 Jeanloup Sieff, (Les Grands Photographes), Filipacchi, Paris, 1983 Jeanloup Sieff, (I grandi fotografi), Fabbri, Milan, Italy, 1982 Portrait de Dames assises, de paysages tristes et de nus mollement las, Contrejour, Paris, 1982 La Vallée de la Mort, Denoël, Paris, 1978 La photo, with Chenz, Denoël, Paris, 1975, 2nd ed 1985
Académie d'Art Moderne de Gand, Belgium, exhibition catalogue, 1971 Jeanloup Sieff, Galerie la Demeure, J-P Sudre, introduction Jeanloup Sieff, La Demeure, Paris, 1968
TELEVISION/RADIO
Paris Match Première, Philippe Azoulay, television, 26 minutes, Paris, 1996 Le bon plaisir, 3 hours, France Culture, Paris, 1993 Grand format, one hour, RTL, Paris, 1991 Schick-chaud, one hour, RF1, Paris, 1991 Télévision Suisse, Portrait, 30 minutes, 1986 Flash 3, Eric Cloué, TF1, 1981 Expressions, TF1, 1980 La nudité, France Culture, 1980 3 jours, 3 photographes, F Moskowitz with Robert Doisneau and Bruno Barbey, television, TF1, 1978 La Vallée de la mort, Jeanloup Sieff, television, TF1, one hour, August 1978 Invité du Lundi et Chemin de la connaisance, radio, France Culture, 1976 Entretiens, Télévision Suisse Romande, 1976 Chambre noir, Michael Tournier, television, TF1, May 1969
