Well-known for his love of the frivolous and superficial, Jeanloup Sieff’s legacy places him in the top rank of fashion and art photographers. A veteran of Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and an associate of the famous Magnum agency, Sieff took up his camera to capture ‘the pleasure of those maddening lights’; whether the chic limelight of Hollywood, the harsh glare of Death Valley skies or the fashion shoot flash, his images are studies in the art of glamour. Born in Paris to parents of Polish origin, Sieff’s interest in photography began at the age of fourteen when he received a Photax plastic camera for his birthday, and it was during holidays in Poland when photographing girls he met that he got hooked on the medium.
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In 1953 he attended the Vaugirard School of Photography in Paris, later moving to the Vevey School in Switzerland, and by 1954 he was working as a freelance reporter. Two years later he began shooting fashion photography, and in 1958 he joined Magnam, which took him to Italy, Greece, Poland and Turkey on assignments. He settled in New York for a number of years in the 1960’s where he worked for various lifestyle magazines such as Esquire and Vogue amongst other major publications, and subsequently became extremely popular in America. Sieff won a number of prizes in his life, including 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, and Rudolf Nureyev, with dancers and nudes both recurring themes in his work. Sieff died on 20th September 2000 at the age of 66 at the Laennec hospital in Paris.