At the invitation of Paris Photo 99, the Paris Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP–European Photography Centre) will present a selection of works from its collection around the theme of "Fashion and Photography".

Located in the Marais, Paris' oldest district, the MEP is a cultural edifice of a new type founded at the initiative of the city of Paris and committed to contemporary photography. From October 6, 1999 to January 9, 2000, at its building at 5-7 rue de Fourcy in Paris' 4th arrondissement, the MEP will also present the collection of Roger Thérond, head and chief "eye" of the grand old French photo weekly Paris Match.

"William Klein, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, David Seidner"

An Exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie

The MEP's collection, started in the 1980s, has expanded to more than 15,000 works, an international cross-section from the late 1950s through today. In keeping with the theme chosen for Paris Photo 99, the MEP selected work from its collection by three great photographers associated with fashion.

William Klein (American photographer - New York, 1928)

Although he was born in New York to a family of Hungarian origin, since 1949 William Klein has spent most of his career in Paris. He started out painting geometric abstractions shown in Brussels and Milan, but quickly mastered the technique of photography. He cast his keen eye on mid-1950s America during a return visit to his home town, resulting in an implacable photographic statement, entitled New York but published only in Paris (éditions du Seuil, 1956). Klein would receive little recognition in the U.S. until 1980. Yet the book won France's Prix Nadar and so impressed Fellini that he invited Klein to Italy. Rome came out in 1958, followed by and Moscow, Tokyo in 1964.

With his highly contrasting prints, blurry shots and double exposures, Klein is above all a photographer of the street. His "in your face" point-blank shots allow the viewer to elbow into the crowd, or stare at fellow pedestrians. These photos, "as incomprehensible as life itself", are the opposite of the so-called "objective" photography of that time and the imagery it considered acceptable. An excellent fashion photographer, designer of his own books and director of 250 commercials, in 1964 Klein turned his attention to full-length documentaries (Cassius the Great, 1965; The Little Richard Story, 1980). His remarkable Who are you, Polly Magoo ? (1966 Jean Vigo prizewinner) is an acidic examination of fashion and the medias.

Helmut Newton (Naturalized Australian photographer - Berlin, 1929)

Helmut Newton left Germany in 1933, bound for Singapore. He ended up emigrating to Australia and joined the army. After the war, he opened a studio in Melbourne, working as a freelancer for the Australian edition of Vogue. In 1957, he signed a contract with the British edition, but once again ended up slightly somewhere else–Paris, where he lived for the next 20 years. During his years at French Vogue, his style reached full maturity and he became one of its brightest stars. A 1971 heart attack led him to become extremely selective about commissions.

As house photographer for the international jet set whom he tended to portray with a mixture of critique and humour, Newton became famous for a signature mise-en-scène in both his fashion and other work, such as his "erotic portraits", one of which shows a sculpturesque dominatrix in a luxurious setting (White Women, 1976; Sleepless Nights, 1978). Newton photographs only people he likes, admires or hates. His provocative images, which, he readily admits, manifest his own personal obsessions, have brought him global recognition. The 1981 Big Nudes reaffirmed the centrality of the naked body to his opus. The Musée d'art moderne in Paris devoted a major retrospective to his work in 1984.

Irving Penn (American photographer, Plainfield, 1917)

Irving Penn was an independent graphic artist living in New York when Saks department store hired him to do their advertisements in 1940-41. The following year was spent in Mexico, painting and photographing urban signage and the graphic qualities of the city. Disappointed by his results as a painter, he destroyed the year's production and went home. In 1943, he became the assistant to Alexander Liberman, art director at Vogue. Penn was to spend the bulk of his career with this magazine, where he racked up 65 front covers, mainly portraits of people in the arts.

Painters and sculptors, dancers, film makers, musicians, architects, writers–Penn photographed the most influential figures of the 20th century. In 1950, he began the first of what would be 27 seasons of Haute Couture. Starting in 1964, he revived platinum-palladium prints, a technique abandoned since the turn of the century that produces velvety tones. Penn has brought his gravitas and refinement to fashion (Issey Miyake, 1988), still lifes, cigarette butts (1972), nudes and the ethnographic studies in Peru, Nepal and Africa that appeared in Worlds in a Small Room (1974). A 1984 retrospective by the New York Museum of Modern Art travelled in the U.S. and abroad.

David Seidner (American photographer, Los Angeles, 1957, New York, 1999)

David Seidner started taking photographs when he was 14. He was 19 when he did his first cover shot, and at the age of 21 he had what was to be the first of many solo exhibitions (Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, 1971). In the 1960’’s he began working with the most prestigious fashion houses, particularly Yves Saint Laurent, with whom he signed a two-year exclusive contract. His work appeared in many magazines, including Harper’s & Queen and Vogue Italia. He was also editor of the New York art magazine Bomb. He died in New York last August.

Seidner’s highly stylized fashion photography was marked by a combination of technical perfectionism, unique composition and poetic sensibility. Further, he never restricted himself to this field. From his first fragmented images (inspired at that time by the theories of John Cage) to his experiment with mirrors and shattered glass, he was able to produce a coherent oeuvre that stands as a landmark in contemporary photography. On the occasion of its 1986 opening, the Musée des Arts de la Mode (the Paris fashion