Louis Faurer (1916 – 2001) was an American candid or street photographer. He was a quiet artist who never achieved the broad public recognition that his best-known contemporaries did; however, the significance and caliber of his work were lauded by insiders, among them Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Edward Steichen, who included his work in the Museum of Modern Art exhibitions In and Out of Focus (1948) and The Family of Man (1955).
Fashion photography by Louis Faurer in the Early 1960s
Faurer did fashion photography for Vogue, Junior Bazaar, Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Elle, and Glamour, as well as assignments for Life and Look for more than twenty years. He complained that his work at Life involved too much travel, so he quit in the early 1950s. Most of the prints and negatives of his fashion work have probably been discarded, as Faurer stored them with a friend when he left the country in the late 1960s, then failed to reclaim them.
In 1984, while running to catch a New York city bus, Faurer was struck by a car and seriously injured. He never photographed again. He spoke of his “intense desire to record life as I see it” as his only motivation: “As long as I’m amazed and astonished, as long as I feel that events, messages, expressions and movements are all shot through with the miraculous, I’ll feel filled with the certainty I need to keep going.”
Take a look at these vintage photos to see his fashion photography in the early 1960s.
China Machado in beigey-white wool tweed coat baring the throat by Originala, hat by Mr. John, photo by Louis Faurer, Harper’s Bazaar, February 1960
China Machado in gorgeous white crêpe gown by Gustave Tassell caught in luxurious long coil of natural dark mink by Maximilian, ring by Harry Winston, photo by Louis Faurer, Harper’s Bazaar, February 1960
China Machado, photo by Louis Faurer, Harper’s Bazaar, 1960
Isabella Albonico in full-skirted brown Chantilly lace dress sashed in white satin by Harvey Berin, earrings by Miriam Haskell, photo by Louis Faurer, Harper’s Bazaar, April 1960
Isabella Albonico in pretty white organdy dress with dashes of black and white gingham bordered with black velvet by Highlight, black tulle hat by Lilly Daché, photo by Louis Faurer, Harper’s Bazaar, June 1960
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