Jeanloup Sieff

(b Paris, 30 Nov 1933). French photographer. He studied photography at the Vaugirard photographic school in Paris in 1953 and at the photography school in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1954. After this he worked as a fashion photographer for Elle (1955-8) and with the Magnum photographic agency (1959-60). From 1961 he worked freelance, contributing images to Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Vogue and other magazines, establishing a permanent studio in Paris in 1967. Treating a variety of subjects, especially the nude and landscape, he had a propensity for unexpected objects and unusual camera angles. His photographs are invariably pervaded by a sense of melancholy.

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Sieff, Jeanloup (1933-2000), French photographer who began as a photojournalist in the 1950s, belonging briefly to Magnum. In 1959 he won the Prix Niépce and published his first book, Borinage, containing gritty images of a Belgian miners' strike. But he spent the early 1960s in New York working for leading fashion magazines, especially Harper's Bazaar. He made portraits—notably of Rudolf Nureyev (1960) and Charlotte Rampling (1967)—and landscapes (Scotland in 1972, Death Valley, California, in 1977). Most striking, however, was Sieff's continual output of stylish nudes and near-nudes, presented either in sculptural isolation, or in surreal settings like train compartments or, waiflike, in sparse interiors. Shadows or designer lingerie evoke mythical enchantment and bondage. For much of his nude and landscape work he favoured ultra-wide-angle lenses and grainy monochrome.

— Robin Lenman

Bibliography

• Jeanloup Sieff: 40 Years of Photography, trans. C. Daro and C. Miller (1996)

Jeanloup Sieff (November 30, 1933 – 20 September 2000) was a practitioner of the photographic art of high fashion, and avowed a fidelity to the frivolous and superficial. His legacy places him in the top rank of fashion, portrait, and art photographers.

Sieff was born in Paris to parents of Polish origin. His interest in photography was first piqued when he received a Photax plastic camera as a birthday gift for his fourteenth birthday. He recalled his holidays in Polish winter resort of Zakopane as a period when photographing newly met girls he got really hooked on photography. In 1953 he attended the Vaugirard School of Photography in Paris, later on moved to the Vevey School in Switzerland, and in 1954 he was already working as a freelance reporter, leaving aside his brief interest in cinema.

In 1956 he began shooting fashion photography, and in 1958 he joined the Magnum Agency. His work for them made him travel to Italy, Greece, Poland and Turkey. He settled in New York for a number of years in the 1960s, where he worked for Esquire, Glamour, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, becoming extremely popular in America.

He 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. Dancers and nudes were two recurring themes in his works. Jeanloup Sieff died in Paris, September 20, 2000 at the age of 66. His daughter, Sonia Sieff, is a known photographer.

External links

• Staley Wise Gallery
• Jeanloup Sieff
• Sonia Sieff
• Jean-Loup Sieff's portfolio at Photography-now

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