Frank Horvat. La Mode dans Paris retourne dans la rue

The streets of Paris, a public stage for fashion photography.

With SNCF and the Mairie de Paris, the images will be offered to all passersby and photography lovers.

History: When after the war Frank Horvat began his life as a photojournalist leaving Switzerland, which had sheltered his youth, he chose Paris. The City of Light, the liberated city represented Mecca for those who believed in photography. His photographic language barely honed during his years in India, he roams the capital as a terrain of discoveries: the silhouette of his Italian fiancée Mate mingles with passersby, the modern young woman poses yet seems captured naturally. The 1950s, with the rise of ready-to-wear, encouraged women toward a more natural and accessible elegance. Frank was receptive to this, and from his first steps in fashion photography, he championed shooting outside the studio, in natural light, with a handheld Leica without a tripod, keeping makeup to a minimum. His career as a fashion photographer took off, and thanks to the most daring magazines of the era, Harper's Bazaar and Jardin des Modes, he took couturiers' gowns through the streets of London, Rome, New York, and above all Paris.

We propose decking out the walls of Paris with unpublished photographs paying tribute to the muse city and to this art that still deserves celebration and honor: fashion photography, an accomplice to the contemporary woman.

Urban picture rails will serve as windows onto this photography, which almost erases the boundary between reportage and fashion.

Spring 2027