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Peter Lindbergh. A Different Vision on Fashion Photography

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The Lindbergh lens
Unique fashion storytelling that first launched the supermodels

When German photographer Peter Lindbergh shot five young models in downtown New York City in 1989, he produced not only the iconic British Vogue January 1990 cover but also the birth certificate of the supermodels. The image didn t just bring revered faces together for the first time; it marked the beginning of a new fashion era and a new understanding of female beauty.

Coinciding with his major retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, this book gathers more than 400 images from four decades of Lindbergh s photography to celebrate his unique and game-changing storytelling and the new romantic and narrative vision it brought to art and fashion.

Whether in striking single portraits or dramatic situations of figure and setting, we trace the photographer s cinematic inflections and his provocative play with female archetypes as subjects adopt the guise of dancers, actresses, heroines, and femmes fatales. Raw and seductive at once, we see how Lindbergh s trademark monochrome pictures also redefined standards of beauty by emphasizing spirit and personality as much as looks, celebrating the elegance and sensuality of older women, and privileging natural and authentic beauty in an era of pervasive retouching.

In a testimony to Lindbergh s illustrious status in the fashion world, his images are contextualized by commentaries from collaborators such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Nicole Kidman, Grace Coddington, Cindy Crawford, and Anna Wintour, who chose Lindbergh to shoot her first US Vogue cover. Their tributes explain what makes Lindbergh s images so unique and powerful.

Exhibition Peter Lindbergh. A Different History of Fashion at Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, September 10, 2016 February 12, 2017

Text in English, French, and German"

522 pages, Hardcover

Published October 9, 2016

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About the author

Peter Lindbergh

41 books18 followers
Lindbergh was born in Poland and grew up in Duisburg. He studied painting in art school, but began photography in 1971 and established himself as an advertising photographer. Moving to Paris in 1978, to concentrate on high-fashion, he photographed many top models including Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Isabella Rossellini, Nastassja Kinski and Tatjana Patitz as well as other projects with Karl Lagerfeld, Daryl Hannah, Giorgio Armani and more. His photographs have been published by Stern, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines. He also photographed Céline Dion for her perfume ad. A new upcoming project is an advert video shoot for Mariah Carey’s new fragrance, "M".
He is considered to be one of the world's preeminent fashion photographers, particularly in black and white, and is credited with helping create the supermodel phenomenon of the 1990s. He prefers his model to have minimal make-up and a simple hairstyle. Wim Wenders is an admirer of his work.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Sia ☾.
119 reviews10 followers
December 14, 2020
»about art: you take things that look exactly the same, but the context is different and that makes it art - somebody sees something and it changes their perception.«

»35mm is like a part of your body. you talk and you take pictures; how people react to you and your camera, that’s what you can get on 35mm. many photographers are fetishsts. they are always talking about the camera and not about the pictures. i have an old nikon. it’s perfect. don’t worry. it’s not about the camera.«

so ein schönes buch über einen der begnadetsten künstler unserer zeit! hochqualitative aufnahmen, glänzendes papier, nur mir leider etwas zu wenig infos über lindbergh selbst - hätte gerne noch mehr von seinen worten dagehabt, vor allem weil er eine sehr schöne art hat, sachen darzustellen und zu erklären.
aber nichtsdestotrotz ist es sein geld absolut wert - super ästhetisch!
Profile Image for Kate S.
40 reviews1 follower
December 24, 2020
Дуже люблю Ліндберга, тому довго мріяла про фотокнигу. На диво чудовий варіант для подарунку чи coffee table book. Мені подобається брати її в руки і випадково переглядати знімки. Вони дуже надихають своєю сучасністю.
Profile Image for Marina.
8 reviews
December 18, 2024
Creo que mas que leer es un libro de mirar, pararte en las fotografias y analizarlas. Pero igual lo meto entre mis leidos, creo que es muy interesante.
Profile Image for bellah7.
24 reviews1 follower
April 26, 2025
I appreciated the book’s length, as it’s 500 pages really allow readers to get a strong picture of Peter Lindbergh’s photographic style, and to see how he captures a variety of different models.

Let’s start with the positive - all the things I liked about his work.

* He has a gift for taking photos that feel very real, unfiltered and human, which represent the subjects as they truly are. This is an interesting way to work in the fashion industry, where glamour and style often take over. This is highlighted well in his photo of the incredibly famous supermodels smiling and laughing in the white shirts on the beach in Santa Monica - love that one.
* Furthermore, I was pleased to read about his commitment to presenting women in an empowered way during the book’s introduction. After all, the fashion industry is a woman’s game, so it’s only right that female models be honoured in the uplifting way they deserve.
* I found it inspiring that he got his start by being an assistant to a photographer despite having no prior experience, especially as someone who is interested in taking up photography myself.
* “It’s not about the camera.” = this quote was refreshing to read as someone who has wondered whether the price of your camera is pivotal to being able to create meaningful and impactful work.
* “But I think photography has to happen in the camera. It doesn’t happen in photoshop or in post production” = I think this quote showcases a valuable lesson in photography - you either capture that moment, that emotion, that right angle, or you don’t. No amount of twiddling with lighting etc. in post production can make a masterpiece, so you have to be extremely present when photographing your subjects.
* I like the way he questions photographers who “retouch the very personal truth of the face itself”, and how he instead wants to “reflect a certain social or human reality”. As I mentioned earlier, he certainly achieves this in his work. When he framed retouching photos as tampering with “the personal truth of the face” it made me see post production in a whole different light! Very interesting take.
* It fascinated me how in some photos, some body parts of the models are out of frame or not visible due to the angle the photo was taken at, e.g. you can’t see the model’s face because their back is facing us, or their legs extend out beyond the frame. This creates mystery, I feel, which draws us into the photos, especially when the model is in close proximity to camera. In particular, Lindbergh shot an Alexander McQueen photo where we can’t see model’s facial features because of the way lighting is used, not only creating mystery and intrigue but drawing attention to the clothes. It also suited McQueen’s brand identity I think, by forming this sort of supernatural ghostly effect.
* There is a photo of his where the model brought her hands and arms over her face in kind of x shape, with her elbows almost reaching out into the viewer. This creates a kind of tether between viewer and character that I find interesting.
* I enjoy the way he sometimes plays with silhouettes and shadows in his work.
* So many of his photos have a wonderful ability to capture raw, unstylised emotion in the subjects, which I suppose coincides with his gift in photographing in a way that tells a subtle narrative. I found myself looking at lots of his work and coming up with ideas in my head of where the characters that the models were portraying might have been or why they might be feeling a certain emotion. This is a sign of a good photographer.
* While he doesn’t appear to do this often, when Lindbergh does photograph models close up in conjunction with his naturalistic style, us viewers are left with intimate and touching portraits of the subjects that make us feel like we are getting to know them on a deeper level than a lot of other photographers capture.
* There is a photo of model Birgit Kos where she is laying on side and everything lower than her waist extends out of the frame to left, preventing us from seeing the lower half of her body. One arm is positioned behind her head and stretches up to top of photograph, while her other elbow meets the bottom corner. I find photos where different body parts of the models touch the top / bottom / corners of photos really create more engagement and draw us in more, because they are better filling the space. However I acknowledge that sometimes effective stories can be told by using empty space.
* Lindbergh’s models often feel like they’re gazing into your soul, which is engaging. Either they are talented models, or he is good at directing them.
* He frequently uses cities as backdrops, such as Paris or New York. This can add a cool, rustic, bustling feel that compliments the clothing, in certain cases, such as the photo where all the big early 90s supermodels are wearing Chanel leather and spread out amongst the brickwork, motorbikes and oil drum type things.
* A cool photo in the book is the one where he is standing with the models, but they are posing as though the campaign photo is being taken while he’s just there with his camera round his neck. I liked the way it depicted two worlds colliding, that of reality and fantasy.
* While I am about to talk about the low contrast that he often uses in his photos being frustrating and dull to me, he does create this photo with a model reaching her hand out in an almost dance pose, and the low contrast used gives her this poignant, statue quality.
* One of my favourite photos in the book has the models all close to camera and in close proximity to one another also, in a sort of backstage hubbub shot. It’s a good example of Lindbergh’s ability to create engaging storytelling.
* I was inspired by a photo in which 3 models are all wearing clothes from the same brand but tell individual different stories due to their very different types of beauty. One model was very fae-like and ethereal looking, another was more rugged and strong, and another was haunting and seductive. This is a cool way to show how one brand can cater for all different types of women.
* Another shot that inspired me had three women on a sofa with their legs all positioned in different directions, which created a spider-like effect that was visually impactful.
* Another favourite photo of mine in the book was the one with Helena Christensen in the rain. She wears a black dress which clings to her body and has her arm positioned behind her neck. The emotion on her face inspires many possible stories, and the camera’s fairly close proximity makes us more focused on her character than her location.

However, this is my second book of fashion photography that I have read which focuses on the work of one particular photographer (the other book was Mario Testino’s photos of Kate Moss). I must say I do think that for me personally, Mario’s style appeals more. Additionally, when reading Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen’s huge books that celebrate their contributions to the fashion industry, there were many photographers in there whose style I appreciated more than Lindbergh’s.

This is what doesn’t work for me in Lindbergh’s work.

* He loves to use low contrast in his images, which makes everything look a bit grey and frequently prevents the models from standing out to the viewer.
* This is worsened by his models rarely being captured in close proximity to the camera, instead they are eclipsed by their background.
* Due to so often taking photos in cities, lots of his photos feature background people who I felt were not dressed in a way that supported the narratives Lindbergh could have been trying to tell. However, I acknowledge that he may have done this to create a sense of realism? Even so, the way the models are dressed doesn’t tend to match with the more plainly dressed civilians, breaking any sense of realism he may have wanted to form.
* There are a few landscape photos sans models in this book, which to me felt uninspiring and didn’t give me any sense of story. I could not tell why he chose to take pictures of certain things at all.
* Many a time Lindbergh uses plain and boring backgrounds for his models, but the models are not positioned close enough to the camera for them to create intrigue that makes up for their surrounding location. However, his naturalistic style does work well in a photo he took of a chair on stage in an empty theatre that is surrounded by roses. It told a poignant and beautiful story to me about what happens when the curtains close and the show is over, which really works with his penchant for naturalism.
* I thought there were sometimes too many people in his city photos, and the model was too far away from the camera to combat this. As a result, they kind of get lost among their surroundings and do not stand out, or tell a story.
* I didn’t like the way he often leaves lighting rigs or set pieces in the shot - it wasn’t done in a way that worked for me.
* He says in the introduction that he wants to tell stories within his fashion photograph work, yet he time and time again chooses such desolate indoor backdrops? Which inspire no sense of narrative to me?

Overall, I enjoyed having the opportunity to study a fashion photographer’s style which was very different to that of Ellen Von Unwerth and Mario Testino (the main ones I have looked at so far myself). It opened my eyes to a different way of capturing models and other possible techniques that can be used. However, his style just didn’t particularly speak to me as a viewer. That does not mean to say that there weren’t some inspiring and captivating photos in the book though. Perhaps I just prefer more stylised fashion photography work.
Profile Image for Pranav Hundekari.
61 reviews5 followers
July 15, 2020
This is a Huge book, that is really extraordinary to absorb.

You pay attention to the framing, pose, dynamic range, contrast and location of lights - the technical details of a typical fashion photograph. Then, you are drawn to the sheer beauty of these faces, plain or painted, blown up or propped. Just when you are losing yourself in the freckles and skin tones, you are distracted by the light in your room reflecting on the thick semi-glossy page preventing you from taking it all in, ensuring that you don't assume to glance through Peter Lindbergh's work.

Each page demands voyeuristic and academic attention. Peter Lindbergh himself is watching you study his art.
Profile Image for Harsh.
13 reviews
October 2, 2020
An absolutely amazing guide to all things Lindbergh. Revelled the essay in the beginning. After that, it's just one after another onslaught of amazing photos by die meister.
Profile Image for Geena.
105 reviews
September 11, 2019
"A Different View on Fashion Photography" is surprisingly brief in text. The bulk of its mass (a heavy book that wears on the wrists and back after a short time) lies within the collection of photography by the subject of the artbook (Peter Lindbergh) and how his varying subjects - like supermodels Milla Jovovich and Noami Campbell - evolve through his lens as time passes.

What text there is provides some insight into his philosophy on photography itself (the desire or naturalistic depictions of models, the model as a person and not a living mannequin dolled up to the point of unreality) and how his interests changed as he desired to moved away from modeling and focus on his other interests. It's a solid read and an even better photo-book. I definitely recommend it to anyone with a vested or passing interest in photography.
Profile Image for Karah.
Author 1 book29 followers
July 7, 2022
I ravished this tome!!! So delighted that the library had it in circulation. It's enormous and heavy. (Do some exercise with it!!!) All black and white photography. I gravitate more towards color photography, but Mr. Lindbergh is so magnificent that I welcomed the chiaroscuro.

May Mr. Lindbergh rest in sweet peace.
Profile Image for noen.
4 reviews6 followers
January 18, 2023
Incredible book, Incredible photos with absurd qualities, some pages with nudity that describe exactly the art of “old” photography. I’m passionate about fashion and this book just made an addition to this love.

I gained more knowledge about amazing fashion artists, but I would like to have some more, some that were left out could be iconic, great book I recommend it to fashion lovers!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Noah.
30 reviews
December 31, 2025
I have been a huge fan of photography for many decades and have lots of my photo equipment back in the day. I no longer use the equipment, but still appreciate the art behind photography. Peter Lindberg is one of the greatest photographers of all time and I highly recommend this to those who wants to be inspired by one of the best photographers.
Profile Image for Albert Vroomen.
13 reviews
January 24, 2023
This book features stunning images, organized by designer and their work. It's a must-have for fans of Peter. It's an excellent smaller and more affordable version of a classic. I wish Taschen would produce more books like this. It's a great reference for artists.
Profile Image for Evelyne.
510 reviews2 followers
July 6, 2018
Superb, very nice overview 😍
Profile Image for B___y__g.
20 reviews
December 26, 2019
One of the few photo books read this year. I’ve been away from photography for a long time.
Profile Image for Philip.
45 reviews6 followers
March 18, 2021
Fantastic insight to fashion and portrait photography. I wish there was way more text; there are only 5 pages of text out of the 500 page book. But the pure artistry speaks for itself. It will forever be a great influence in my own photography. Easy 5 stars.
Profile Image for Edith.
15 reviews
August 14, 2021
A must have for fashion lovers ! Such amazing black and white photographs by the legendary Peter Lindbergh
Profile Image for Brendan Mansfield.
67 reviews10 followers
August 31, 2021
What can I say? An absolute legend.

Stunning work, presented in a beautiful oversized book.

Def worth checking out for any type of photographer.
Profile Image for Veselin Stefanov.
21 reviews
November 9, 2022
Timeless classic from a timeless photographer! The curation of the pictures is very well done.
Profile Image for Xavier.
245 reviews
December 1, 2023
Lindbergh por siempre será de mis favoritos (junto a Newton, Bourdon y Crewdson) y la selección de obra no decepciona, pero el formato no ayuda.
Profile Image for Eva.
45 reviews4 followers
September 9, 2024
his work will forever be inspirational to me, more than I can put even into words <333
Profile Image for Wyame.
32 reviews1 follower
June 11, 2025
When feeling uninspired.. These pages are a reminder that fashion can still surprise us
Profile Image for simi.
51 reviews
Read
June 17, 2025
Cinematic. Dreamy. Such a great showcase of Lindbergh’s mastery. What a shame I have to return this book to the library.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

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