Swimwear by Izod (Divers)

Hoyningen-Huene’s credit, title, and negative date, and Horst P. Horst’s signature and collection notation, in pencil, on verso.

“The pair look as though they might gaze out to sea for ever. In 1930 high-divers epitomized perfection, for they were the most self-possessed of all performers. Hoyningen-Huene’s models may be advertising nothing more than swimwear, but the context is the world of athletics. Hoyningen-Huene inaugurated the heroic phase in fashion photography in the late 1920s. In both his fashion and travel photography he tried to present mankind in a dignified light, as sculptural and heroic. He appreciated what he called ‘naturalness of form and movement’ and deplored ‘organized artificiality.’ Both phrases are taken from African Mirage, his travel book of 1938. He undertook fashion photography for Vogue in 1926, moved to Harper’s Bazaar in 1936, and in 1943 published eloquent picture books on Egypt and Greece. In 1946 he moved to Hollywood and became a portrait photographer of movie starts.” – The Photography Book, Phaidon Press