60 Classic Black and White Celebrity Portraits by Jeanloup Sieff

Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 1962

Born in Paris in 1933, Jeanloup Sieff began his career in 1954 after giving up the idea of working in cinema. After working for Elle magazine and the Magnum agency, he lived and worked in New York from 1961 to 1966. Since 1966 he has lived in Paris and his work has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, as well as, in many other publications. His work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries around the world.

He was a prodigiously productive artist and was often overtaken by the speed of the medium and his own success, normally short of the necessary time to delve into his archive. Hen

“My pictures are little black and white pebbles that I dropped on my way to adulthood, meant for leading me back to my adolescence.” Jeanloup Sieff

Jeanloup Sieff’s is a complete photographer that created prolific work in the fields of fashion, advertising, and portrait photography. The clean modern elegance of his images is combined with a cool sensuality influenced by the “new wave” film-makers of the 50s. A personal erotic vocabulary in his nudes and fashion photography is evident; long bare backs, delicate curves and lingerie. Sieff’s landscapes are almost surreal with rocks and grasses isolated in desolate terrain’s, in contrast to his portraits which convey real human warmth.

“I have been searching for time past all my life.” – Jeanloup Sieff

The master photographer won a number of prizes, including the Prix Niepce, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in Paris in 1981 and the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1992. He photographed many celebrities, among them Jane Birkin, Yves Montand, Alfred Hitchcock, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Rudolf Nureyev.