"These pictures are a testament to the passion Fernand fonssagrives had for his wife Lisa and their enduring relationship through his lens. They are still timeless mementoes which typify an era of inventiveness, a new freedom, and a new way of seeing the world."
- Michael Hoppen
To view the full exhibition, please click here
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The First Supermodel
Lisa Fonssagrives - PennBorn in 1911 in Sweden, Lisa Birgitta Bernstone took up many creative activities such as painting, sculpting and dancing as a child. Both her parents were creative and encouraged her to pursue a career in the arts. They sent Lisa to Mary Wigman’s school in New York City to train as a dancer and upon returning, she opened a dance school in Sweden. After competing in a dance competition in Paris and falling madly in love with the city, she decided to stay and study other forms of dance. It was there that she met and fell in love with fellow dancer, Fernand Fonssagrives and worked with him as a private dance teacher. They married and this was the beginning of both of their very successful careers, hers in modelling and his in photography. After a diving injury, unable to continue dancing, Fernand began taking photographs of Lisa. During this time, Lisa gifted him a Rollieflex and this was to be the catylst to his succesfull career as a fashion photographer. "It became", he said, "part of my body."
In 1936 she was scouted in Paris whilst in an elevator by photographer Willy Maywald who asked her to model hats for him. These photos were sent to Vogue where Horst P. Horst took test photographs of her, and soon after photography masters such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Man Ray came knocking eager to get their own photoshoot with her. During this time Lisa started modelling regularly for Vogue while at the same time her husband, Fonssagrives. The pair began travelling around Europe between shoots, selling their photographs to magazines. Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn was just as much an artist and director as she was a supermodel. She actively took part in the creative aspects of photo shoots, styling her clothes and doing her own hair and makeup. The lighting and composition of a shoot were directed by her and as important to her as her movements as a model, referring to her practice as “still dance”.
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Fernand Fonssagrives -
Fernand Fonssagrives
By Michael HoppenIn 1998, I was introduced to fashion work by a photographer called Fernand Fonssagrives. We sadly never met , but we talked many times on the phone about my gallery holding a show of his work which had never been seen before in the UK. The introduction came about through research I was conducting of Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director and sage who between 1946 and 1961, held classes on what photography could be and should be. Our subsequent show on Brodovitch called ‘Astonish Me’ was a huge success and encouraged me to dig deeper into some of the photographers he had taught. It was in these classes that many young, budding photographers would attend and learn from the master. They were located in various offices and studios around NY, and attended by who would become some of the most influential figurers in the field of fashion and the advertising/editorial photography world throughout the latter part of the 20th c . Included in this group, was a young photographer called Fernand Fonssagrives. -
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Above images: Fernand Fonssagrives (With camera), 1950, Fernand Fonssagrives (Jumping), c. 1932, Photographed by Hans Weidt
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Other names who you may also recognise were Richard Avedon, David Attie, Ted Croner, Irving Penn, Hans Namuth, Lillian Bassman, Gary Winogrand, Robert Frank, and Marvin Israel to name a few. Fernand Fonssagrives found these classes illuminating and produced some of his greatest work subsequent to him attending. Some of the events took place at his studio in mid-town Manhattan. He was very fortunate to be part of this rising tide of extraordinary talent and learnt much about his craft and how powerful and creative it could be.
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However, it was his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, a tall and exquisite Swedish beauty, who was surely the most influential person in his life and became the model that everyone wanted to work with. They were both dancers when they met but due to an accident, Fernand had to leave ballet. He was gifted a Rolliflex camera from Lisa to keep him busy whilst confined to a wheelchair. This special gift turned Fonssagrives into a celebrated photographer of note. I worked on subsequent shows with his daughter Mia after Fonssagrives passed, and it was clear that he had taken some of the best early pictures of Lisa when they were having ‘fun’ in France before they arrived in America. We held several very successful shows with his early work and published a book which is the only dedicated book to his work. I remember those shows so well, the first in 2003, and many of his prints found new homes and great collections where they still reside.
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Fernand and Lisa Fonssagrives, April 1949. Photographed by Frances McLaughlin
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It gives me such great pleasure to introduce the work again to a new audience in expectation of a new comprehensive museum show at MEP in Paris, dedicated to his wife Lisa Fonssagrives and curated by my good friend, the great Dr Simon Baker. Lisa went on to marry Irving Penn and in turn to be photographed by many other members of the original classes that Brodovitch held. They were to become the most revered fashion photographers of their day, and their legacy, often with Lisa in the frame, lives on today for us to still marvel at.
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Fernand Fonssagrives, Saut et Bateau, 1937
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