George Hoyningen-Huene

George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968) was one of the era’s most innovative photographers, known for his exceptional ability to blend art, fashion, and film.

Working mainly in Paris, New York, and Hollywood, George Hoyningen-Huene achieved international fame for his highly sophisticated fashion and portrait photography. His carefully lit studio compositions with elements of modernism, neoclassicism, and surrealism made him one of the leading photographers for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines from 1926 to 1935 and later at rival magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Revered by his contemporaries, he inspired subsequent generations of legendary photographers and filmmakers worldwide. Richard Avedon called Hoyningen-Huene “a genius, the master of us all.”

In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris stood at the epicenter of creativity and artistic expression. Hoyningen-Huene was recognized as one of this vibrant scene’s foremost chroniclers, capturing the interwoven realms of art, fashion, design, film, and high society. The exhibition Glamour and Style illuminates the photographer’s circle of contemporaries and companions through his iconic portraits. The images he took of the top model Lisa Fonssagrives, alongside those of Lee Miller and Agneta Fischer, both of whom made significant contributions to photography themselves, transport viewers to an era marked by grace and elegance. He also had strong friendships with prominent artists like Man Ray and Salvador Dalí, collaborating with them on several projects.

Besides his interests in art and fashion, Hoyningen-Huene had a lifelong passion for the film industry that began in his youth and he continued to photograph celebrities when he left Vogue for Harper’s Bazaar in 1935. He photographed numerous actors and artists, meticulously preparing for each session to portray the unique essence of each Hollywood icon. His subjects included Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Johnny Weissmüller, Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, and Greta Garbo, to name a few.

During his lifetime, Hoyningen-Huene’s works featured in landmark exhibitions such as Film and Photography of the 1920s (1929) and at the Photokina in Germany (1963). More recently, his images have been featured in various exhibitions on the history of fashion photography, though solo exhibitions of his work are rare. In January 2024, the Neue Nationalgalerie will feature an exhibition on the life of the 1920s icon Josephine Baker, showcasing several portraits by Hoyningen-Huene. Additionally, Chanel will host a solo show dedicated to Hoyningen-Huene at its Tokyo exhibition space starting in February. A catalogue entitled “George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film” published by Thames & Hudson will accompany this latest exhibition and will first be unveiled at Jaeger Art.

Hoyningen-Huene was deeply committed to his craft and never regarded magazine photography as inferior to fine art. He often urged his peers to create images “with the aspiration that they would one day be part of the world’s most prestigious photographic art collections.”

In many ways, Hoyningen-Huene was ahead of his time: he celebrated independent, modern women and openly acknowledged his homosexuality.

George Hoyningen-Huene passed away in 1968 and left his life’s work to his former partner and close friend, Horst P. Horst, who was also one of the most acclaimed photographers of the time. Horst took it upon himself to preserve Hoyningen-Huene’s legacy, carefully curating his archives. In the 1980s, Horst began producing platinum-palladium prints from chosen subjects using the original negatives and released them in limited editions. These extraordinary prints boast a luxurious, matte texture, offering a tonal spectrum from deep blacks to a range of subtle grays and soft whites.

Since 2020, Benjamin Jaeger has been a senior advisor for the George Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives in Sweden. The estate’s mission is to safeguard the renowned photographer’s legacy, making his work accessible to a wide audience, and sparking inspiration among contemporary photographers and creatives around the world.