Provenance:
A Private Collection, New York

Literature:
Kazmeier, Horst: Sixty Years of Photography, Rizzoli, 1991, pl. 8

Probably Horst's most recognizable work, Mainbocher Corset, with its elegance and beautiful lines, marks a turning point in Horst’s life as it was the last photograph he took in Paris before the war. He described the end of an era in his own words forty five years later:

“It was the last photograph I took in Paris before the war. I left the studio at 4:00am, went back to the house, picked up my bags and caught the 7:00am train to Le Havre to board on the Normandie. We all felt that the war was coming. Too much armament., too much talk. And you knew that whatever happened, life would be completely different after... This photograph is peculiar – for me it is the essence of that moment. While I was taking it, I was thinking of all that I was leaving behind”.