Fernand Fonssagrives (1910-2003) was one of the most successful and highly paid fashion photographers of the 1940s and 1950s. His photographs were widely published in the editorial pages of Town & Country, Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Esquire, where his pictures for Bergdorf Goodman also appeared regularly in the advertising pages.
This exhibition will concentrate on the photographs Fonssagrives made in Europe and New York during the formative years of his career, from the 1930s into the 1950s, emphasizing the free-spirited life and working partnership he had with the Swedish-born dancer Lisa Bernstone, to whom he was married from 1935-1950. Their unique collaboration as model and photographer created the foundation for what became remarkable individual careers for each of them.
Born Fernand Vigoureaux near Paris in 1910 to a sculptor father and a musician mother, his parents encouraged the young Fonssagrives to do the things he loved most: science, art, sports, gymnastics and dance. After his parents divorced when he was 12, Fernand began to use his mother’s maiden name as his surname. He moved to the United States at the age of 18 to continue his dance studies, and returned to Europe in 1931 at the age of 21. In 1934 Fernand met Lisa, also a dancer, who was studying in Paris. Fernand and Lisa married in 1935, performed with different companies, and worked together as dance instructors. Fernand’s career was abruptly ended, however, when he injured his leg badly in a diving accident. During his lengthy recuperation Lisa gave him a Rolleiflex, and his career as a photographer was born. As Fernand said later, “it was my first serious camera, and it became a part of my body.” He began to photograph Lisa swimming, diving, and bathing in mud; in some images, she appears like a nude sprite, posing fearlessly on the edge of a cliff. Long before assignments from art directors became the norm, Fonssagrives sold his pictures to magazines throughout Europe such as Jeunesse d’Aujourd’hui. As Lisa explained to the photographer David Seidner decades later, “In those days, a picture didn’t have to be assigned to be published; if it was beautiful, the magazines would run it.”
Fernand Fonssagrives
Photographs 1930s-1950s
16 November 16 2023 – 17 February 2024
Deborah Bell Photographs
526 West 26th Street, Room 411, New York, NY 10001
https://www.deborahbellphotographs.com
Fernand FONSSAGRIVES (French, 1910-2003) Ardèche Self-Portrait (kayak trip), 1936
Fernand FONSSAGRIVES (French, 1910-2003) Élan (Lisa Fonssagrives), 1935
Fernand FONSSAGRIVES (French, 1910-2003) Jean Moral, à la Frandière 1930s
Fernand FONSSAGRIVES (French, 1910-2003) Lisa and Mia Fonssagrives, Long Island Beach, ca. 1946
Fernand FONSSAGRIVES (French, 1910-2003) Uddevalla Fjord (Lisa Fonssagrives), ca. 1934
Fernand Fonssagrives (French, 1910-2003) Saut et bateaux (Lisa Fonssagrives), 1937
