PETER LINDBERGH

Foreword by Karl Lagerfeld for the book Ten Women

PREFACE BY KARL LAGERFELD

Ten Women who have turned their beauty as well as a few imperfections and shortcomings into strength. As the English poet Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) once said : « There is no beauty without some strangeness in the proportions ». Peter Lindbergh has helped many of these girls to reveal this very special beauty to others. Through him they have often discovered their true personality and originality. There was a pretty, almost banal model named Linda. Peter turned her into « the » Evangelista. « Evangelista », just as one would say « Dietricht » or « Garbo ».
The search for the domain of these women’s existence in Peter Lindbergh’s photographs could lead to the conclusion that in their lives men do not play a great role ; this would normally have been a condition for the materialization of these photos. Just the opposite is the case. Peter Lindbergh’s women somehow grew out of the world of men without any « ambiguité ». Liberté and égalité » is their motto, maybe even « fraternité »…
The question is what will become of them later. Will they be subjected to dull oblivion ? They radiate an impression of strength, but pehaps they are in fact indescribably mortal, as youth may only be. Contemplating these photographs, one feels they are beginning to make their farewells. Perhaps they dream of a dangerous flame to cast themselves into like a moth, knowing there is little chance of their ever again being so uncompromisingly beautiful as in Peter Lindbergh’s « lichtbilder » (lit. Trans. : »pictures of light », the old german expression for photographs). I find this old and mysterious term extremely appropriate for describing his work, in which large floodlights, white dunes or bright desert landscapes do not have to put in an appearance as an automatic hallmark of his work.
Personally, I know his work so well that I can tell without any effort who did the make-up and the hairstyles in a Lindbergh series. What especially comes to my mind is his cooperation with Stéphane Marais and Julien D’Ys or Odile Gilbert – An unforgettable experience for all concerned. Peter Lindbergh’s photographs will never be regarded with any condescending emotion in thirty or forty year’s time. Fashion never plays the main role in his work. Women are always the main theme. His vision of women is always up-to-date, but at the same time timeless. When referring to his œuvre our grandchildren will never talk of the « blank faces » we so often encounter in old fashion photographs. Peter Linbergh is not a critic of the age, and yet one cannot help feeling in his photographs that he knows the threats of our times and of our future. Kurt Tucholsky said that the fashion queens (the top models of his day) had always been dearer to the world than the fate of the next generation. This perhaps explains why the impression gained of Peter Lindbergh’s work is never one of irresponsibility or superfluousness. It should also be born in mind that he has children of his own.
Some of the ten girls in this book have an almost apologetic look in their eyes (Naomi is the example that strikes me most) as if wanting to say : we have so much to do, we must live. Even the youngest models such as Amber Valetta and the unique Kate Moss have an air of adulthood, of responsability in his photographs. It is not easy to analyze the influences that led Peter Lindbergh to his very personal vision of photography.

The fact that he is German certainly plays an important role, in the best possible sense. The kind of « germanness » only capable to develop into a universal expression abroad. The elements of his style had already been established before the rediscovery of Rudolf Koppitz’s work (1884-1936). He could be his heir, having instinctively joined the family of german photographers.
In this book Peter Lindbergh dispenses with the tragic element Koppitz’s works contains, the dramatic tension remaining, however. Even in his nude photographs – quite unlike Helmut Newton – it is always the face that plays the main role. He does not even attempt to remove his models from the setting of their youth, which would be an easy task for him but not his intention. The present, irrevocable moment is here stronger than any notion of future and fate. None of the photographs in this book is older than ten years ; Lindbergh consciously fights against the melancholic veil of recent past. Of the ten women in this book perhaps only Amber Valetta and Kate Moss possess the key to the mysterious door of the near visual future.
For Peter Lindbergh this book (and the large second book he is just preparing) are very important. Books allow detachment. With this freedom he can develop further his own artistic future with the extended elements of his past. There is no fixed aim. In life only the road to an unknown destination is worth following. Photography today is an absolute art form. Moreover , in our fast-moving age one has to express one’s vision of the world in the fraction of a second. But few can accomplish this in such a strong and definitive way as Peter Lindbergh.

Karl Lagerfeld

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