Guy bourdin

“Every composition is meaningful,” explains the only son of French artist and fashion photographer Guy Bourdin (1928-1991), Samuel. “He created a world of his own,” he says of his father, “and was always pushing the limits of beauty, wit, humour, seduction and creation.”

A quarter of a century after his death, Guy Bourdin remains an influential, controversial and even revered figure in photography. But is there more to his imagery than surreal compositions and playful, provocative content?

Giving rare insight, Samuel explains that his father’s considerations stemmed from an extensive knowledge of art and culture. Born into Surrealism, he became fascinated with the artworks of the great masters and frequented museums and libraries, indulging his interests in Ingres, Bellini, Balthus, Bacon, Man Ray.

He kept an extensive library of art, philosophy, cinema and music, and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of poetry. This latter interest is reflected in the fact that in the 1950s, Bourdin exhibited and published his black and white street photographs under the English pseudonym Edwin Hallan. This alter ego resembles the name adoption of Edgar Allan Poe; the choice is significant because the spirit of Poe haunts Bourdin’s work.

"He always went into a job as an artist and that was the end of it"

Ahead of an exhibition of this work at Photo London, and the publication of a new book of his mostly unpublished early work, Untouched, Samuel disrupts the popular narrative on his father’s life, work and personality. Without the knowledge of the breadth of his father’s interests in the wider arts, he believes that his work is often misinterpreted. Or worse, taken at face value. “I think my father is all about humour, subtlety, composition, narrative evocations and the complexity of seduction,” he says.

Bourdin, a fine artist working in a commercial environment, was uncompromising in his vision. He maintained a high level of artistic control over the content of his work and used it to create innovative pictures, which made the advertised product a secondary or even minor element in the frame.

“He was amazing,” says fellow fashion and advertising photographer Albert Watson, who worked with him at French Vogue. “He was an intense person and very knowledgeable in art. The driving force for him was always the imagery. He wouldn’t do a job unless he could do it 100 per cent his way. He always went into a job as an artist and that was the end of it.”

Bourdin’s best-known work, dating from the 1970s and 1980s – including commissions for shoe designer Charles Jourdan – uses vivi