“If photographers are responsible for creating or reflecting an image of women in society, then I must say there is only one way forward, and that is to define women as strong and independent. This should be the responsibility of photographers today: to free women, and ultimately everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection”, once said the late photographer Peter Lindbergh, known for his fashion photography but especially for his way of showing women in a new and authentic light. Five years after his passing, his works and values continue to shine, and today, it is at the Galerie Dior in Paris that his art is showcased in a collaborative exhibition blending fashion, photography, and history. The exhibition features a brand-new selection from the Dior archives adorning the museum’s 13 rooms, alongside no fewer than 100 Lindbergh photographs, in a harmonious mix centered on a single subject: women.
While this is the first time these two fashion masters, each excelling in different fields, have come together, this collaboration is particularly meaningful given the importance each places on the female figure. For Dior, it was the New Look and his Bar Jacket with its hourglass silhouette, perfectly fitting and enhancing the female body, that propelled him to the forefront of the fashion world in 1947. This creation could be described as an ode to femininity, alongside other collections by Christian Dior, each more feminine than the last with their forms, fabrics, colors, and prints. It is well known that Christian Dior held a deep admiration for women, having grown up surrounded by sisters, one of whom even inspired the creation of the Miss Dior fragrance, also released in 1947. After Dior’s premature death 10 years later, he was succeeded by a series of designers, each adding their unique touch while preserving the brand’s divinely feminine DNA. Current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri often makes women the central theme of her shows, such as the 2020 Haute Couture collection at the Rodin Museum in collaboration with feminist artist Judy Chicago and the SS24 show.
Peter Lindbergh, for his part, has always been known for breaking the codes of standard beauty and stereotyped female roles, especially during a time when fashion magazines and advertisements were filled with femme fatales and wonder women, representing virtually unattainable standards for women. In 1988, he made a strong statement by publishing a photo that would mark the annals of fashion and women’s magazines: six girls (including Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and Christy Turlington) on the beach, bare-faced, wearing only white shirts. Lindbergh despised makeup and never retouched his photos. With Lindbergh, women were depicted as they are: beautiful, natural, with wrinkles, imperfect skin, and small “flaws” that make them extraordinary.
The very concept of the exhibition is to tell a double story: Lindbergh’s, Dior’s, all seen through a single prism: the feminine. The exhibition opens with the Bar Jacket, an emblem of the house, cinched at the waist, alongside modern interpretations by Maria Grazia Chiuri exhibited next to Lindbergh’s grainy black-and-white portraits of models among Manhattan’s industrial scaffolding. The journey continues with a smiling Linda Evangelista, contagiously, seated at a Paris café in a cocktail dress by Marc Bohan, moving on to Tanga Moreau exhaling cigarette smoke at the Gare d’Austerlitz, adorned in Maharaja jewelry and a black dress by John Galliano, and a relaxed, rebellious Milla Jovovich lounging in Raf Simons’s interpretation of the Miss Dior strapless dress. The exhibition’s centerpiece is a mega shoot from 2018 intended for a book, featuring previously unseen prints. For this project, Lindbergh went all out, gathering models from around the world – including Alek Wek, Karen Elson, Irina Shayk, and Carolyn Murphy – with over 80 outfits from Dior’s archives, captured in the bustle of Times Square or in the simplicity of a studio. Throughout the exhibition, visitors can view Lindbergh’s fashion photos for various international magazines, alongside a selection of Dior outfits tracing the brand’s history. Some garments are directly linked to Lindbergh’s photography, like the bias-cut pink gown with floral embroidery from one of Galliano’s early collections, worn by Shalom Harlow for Vogue. Others are attractions in their own right, such as the gold dress Rihanna wore in the new J’adore Dior campaign, or the peach-colored ruffled gown Marlene Dietrich wore in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950).
Such a collection alternates between fashion and model: sometimes the garment is the focus, enhancing the woman’s beauty, with photographs where the model’s face is absent to highlight a particular fabric or cut. Other times, the garment recedes to allow the wearer to shine. This balance perfectly honors Lindbergh’s intent not merely to document fashion but to tell the entire story surrounding and shaping it. Last September, the Galerie Dior welcomed its millionth visitor since its opening in March 2022. Today, the exhibition Dior/Lindbergh is already fully booked for its first two weeks after opening. It opens this Thursday and will run until May 4, 2025. An opportunity to expand one’s knowledge of fashion and photography, but above all, to feast the eyes on a colorfully vibrant mix of black-and-white photos and magical creations.
