Paolo Roversi

Paolo Roversi is regarded as one of the foremost fashion photographers of our age. From his shots, it becomes immediately clear that fashion is not just shows, catwalks, shop windows, looks, performance and consumer goods, but is the very sign of the times, indeed, it is a function of time, a mandatory reckoning with it, a need for change, and thus also a pointer of irreversibility, entropy, overuse. Roversi counteracts the presumption of pleasure with the sweetness of desire, the deception of the imaginary with the evidence of beauty, the aggressiveness of flattery with the delicacy of sensibility. It is the strategy of art creeping into fashion, advertising and communication.
His works for the campaigns of Romeo Gigli, Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto in the Eighties are particularly well-known, underscoring an extremely personal style that has influenced many current fashion photographers. Roversi's photographs have achieved world renown thanks to the type of femininity they privilege, their peculiar lights – defined by Gabriel Bauret as strictly “Italian” – and out-of-focus shots, suggesting qualities of evanescence and spirituality.
What we find in Roversi’s images, and rarely in those of others, is softness towards womanhood, a genuine respect for beauty as something that permits no other attitude towards it.

 

Paolo Roversi is possibly today’s most renowned fashion photographer. After working initially with Nevio Natali, in 1970 he started working with the Associated Press. In 1973 he moved to Paris where he still lives today. Under the Eiffel tower he began working as a reported for the Huppert Agency and gradually, with the help of a few friends, he started approaching the world of fashion. His training with Lawrence Sackmann was decisive in this respect and in 1980 he made a breakthrough with an advertising campaign for Christian Dior. From the mid Eighties onwards, his work has been featured in many exhibitions and publications and has gained widespread recognition. Paolo Roversi now actively works with top fashion designers and the most interesting fashion magazines, including Vogue Italy and UK, Harper's Bazaar, L’uomo Vogue, Interview, W, Arena, ID and Marie Claire. He has numerous advertising campaigns to his name for top-class fashion designers such as Armani, Cerruti, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Alberta Ferretti, Romeo Gigli, Givenchy, Krizia, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, and Yohji Yamamoto, and produces commercials for Dim, Evian, Gervais, Kenzo and Woolmark.