© Paolo Roversi. Molly Bair, Chanel haute couture P/E 2015, Vogue Italia, Paris, 2015. Tirage chromogène sur papier Fujiflex.
Paolo Roversi is internationally renowned for his timeless and enigmatic fashion photography. Having worked with the greatest designers and for the most prestigious magazines, his work occupies a place at the heart of the fashion world yet remains far removed from its ephemeral trends. Whether he is using traditional film, a Polaroid camera – his favourite medium – or even digital photography, his unique style demonstrates a remarkable handling of light and shade, while the mastery of soft focus remains one of the most recognizable traits of his photography.
Paolo Roversi is the definitive survey of the photographer’s work. Tracing the entirety of his fifty-year career, it explores his distinctive approach to his creative space and the way he treats it as a theatre stage, constantly reinventing it to suit each new project. Drawing on his vast archives − and designed in close collaboration with the photographer − Paolo Roversi features many original prints, some of which have never been seen before.
This extract from Paolo Roversi addresses the photographer’s unusual decision to work solely in his studio.
© Paolo Roversi. Tami Williams, Christian Dior A/H 1949-1950, Paris, 2016. Tirage au charbon.
Born in the portrait studio of the late 19th century, fashion photography quickly broke free and aimed to engage with the world, to depict ‘true fashion, lived fashion’. From that moment on, it has moved back and forth between the plain white backdrop of the studio and the most extravagant locations on the planet. There are very few fashion photographers who chose to work in only one setting. By always choosing the studio as his workspace, from the earliest days of his career, Paolo Roversi consciously drew on a tradition that can be traced all the way back to the invention of photography.
Having started out by opening a modest studio in Ravenna, where he took portrait photographs of local families, Roversi believes that all (fashion) photography is portraiture. By stating this, he unwittingly drew on the tradition of Talbot, Léopold Reutlinger, Otto and Félix, who, seizing the opportunity that arose when haute couture first emerged in Paris in the early 20th century and was publicized by the specialist fashion press, practised portrait photography and fashion photography in parallel, as the two genres shared a number of similarities.
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From left to right: © Paolo Roversi. Lida et Alexandra Egorova, Alberta Ferretti A/H 1998-1999, Paris, 1998. Polaroïd original. / © Paolo Roversi. Jérôme Clark, Uomo Vogue, Paris 2005. Tirage chromogène sur papier Fujiflex.
When, in 1979 the magazine Marie-Claire sent Paolo Roversi to photograph swimwear in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, he took a number of cameras with him. But once on the beach, everything started to go wrong. He decided to return to Paris and shoot in the studio, using artificial light.
This experience shows the extent to which Roversi went against a trend that had become increasingly pronounced from the late 1950s onwards, since the arrival of pret-a-porter: the tendency to take fashion outside the studio, in order to make the images more realistic and in tune with the lifestyle of the new generation. Frank Horvat, William Klein and David Bailey shot their models in bustling city streets. In the 1970s, when Roversi was first starting out, Hans Feurer was the leading figure of a kind of fashion photography that depicted models in an outdoor setting, using natural light, with water, sun and wind forming an integral part of the picture.
Because the sky in Lanzarote was too blue for Roversi, he tried to solve the problem by building an improvised shelter. Similarly, on a trip to India, he had a white cabin built to photograph Romeo Gigli's Summer 1989 collection. The outdoors turned out to be a difficult place to shoot, more restrictive than liberating.
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© Paolo Roversi. Audrey Marnay, Comme des Garçons P/E 1997, Paris, 1996. Tirage au charbon.
Paolo Roversi’s preference for using a simple backdrop reflects a desire for simplicity: it eliminates any distractions, gets rid of anything superfluous. The studio functions as a place to retreat from the world, a necessary condition for the creative process: ’I need to be kind of shut away in a room. I need to be hemmed in,’ explains Roversi. In the heart of his studio building, tucked among the floors, is a tiny room: ‘My real studio is here.’
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However, the studio is never completely cut off from the world. ln Roversi’s studio, the large bay windows that face due north are framed by black curtains that can be opened or closed, depending on the desired effect. There is a sense of porousness when the photographer invites the soft daylight inside. It is a subtle dialogue, a change of atmosphere. The studio space comes alive.
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From left to right: © Paolo Roversi. Sihana, Comme des Garçons A/H 2023-2024, Paris, 2023. Tirage au charbon. / © Paolo Roversi. Sasha Robertson, Yohji Yamamoto A/H 1985-1986, Paris, 1985. Tirage pigmentaire sur papier baryté.
Like the conductor of an orchestra, Roversi brings in collaborators who become part of a family-like group, united by common goals. A central axis around which everything else revolves, the studio welcomes in outside forces. It is a meeting place, a place where the photographer first sees the clothes he is going to photograph, the world of the designer, the models who will pose in front of his lens. ‘When we arrive for a shoot in the morning, there are so many different energies the model arriving from New York, the hairdresser from London, the make-up artist, the stylist... Everyone brings their own emotional state, which must be channelled into a beautiful photograph!’ A hubbub, a fusion, with a touch of the bohemian. From 1998 to 2000, Roversi worked at Théodore Géricault's former studio at 23 rue des Martyrs in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, a decision that reflected his affinity with the Romantic painters who lived and worked in the Nouvelle-Athènes quarter. The studio, a place for passing through and exchanges, became a space of artistic brotherhood, united by shared tastes and ideas.
Studio Luce has played host to all the major figures in the fashion world over the last forty years. From models who were just starting out to supermodels, actors, actresses and designers, it wasn’t Roversi who approached them, but they who came to him. Such is the photographer's power. Like Nadar, whose studio on rue Saint-Lazare was a place where artists, novelists, poets and journalists gathered, and whose finest portraits are infused with a bohemian spirit, Roversi’s photographs are connected by a unity of place.
Words by Sylvie Lécallier.
Paolo Roversi is available now.
