“Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again,” Horst P. Horst (1906–1999) famously said, his photographs both defining and transcending the era in which he worked. With a career spanning seven decades, Horst shaped the 20th century as few others could, his fashion and portrait photography setting the high water mark. 

The new exhibition, “Horst P. Horst: Essence of the Times“, chronicles the photographer’s singular gift for using light and shadow as a sculptor wields a hammer and chisel. Bringing together more than 80 works, including portraits of luminaries like fashion doyenne Diane von Furstenberg, designers Coco Chanel, Gloria Vanderbilt, Elsa Schiaparelli, Elsa Peretti, Patrick Kelly, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston, and actors Vivien Leigh and Marlene Dietrich, Essence of the Times explores the ways in which Horst mastered the formal qualities of photography to blur the boundaries between art, commerce, and style.

Recognizing that a great image takes time to create, Horst adapted the traditions of portrait painting to the…