Jeanloup Sieff
(1933 - )
Jeanloup Sieff was born in Paris, France in 1933. As a teenager, Sieff became interested in photography. His dream was to become a film director. He studied at the Ecole de Vevey in Switzerland for a few months and then began working as a freelance reporter 1954. A prolific photographer in the fields of fashion
, advertisings, and portraiture, Sieff brings his memorable black-and-white images. He regards photography as work undertaken for his own pleasure.
Sieff joined Elle magazine in 1955; Elle was a new magazine for younger readers; from 1961-1965, he worked for Esquire, Ladies' Home Journal, and others; and in 1963 he worked for Harper's Bazaar. He made portraits notably of Rudolf Nureyev in 1960; Charlotte Rampling, 1967, landscapes in Scotland in 1972; and 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 sparce interiors. Shadows or designer lingerie evoke mythical enchantment and bondage. For much of his nude and landscape work he favored ultra-wide angle lenses and grainy monochrome. Jeanloup Sieff published his first book, Borinage, containing gritty images of a Belgian miner’s strike.
A retrospective collection of his images Jeanloup Sieff: 40 Years of Photography 1996, is the most recent of several monographs. His work has been exhibited at group and solo shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musee de L’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Arles Festival. He was awarded the Prix Niepce (Paris, 1959), the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (1990) and the Grand Prix de la Biennale de Nancy 1994.
