Gilles Bensimon. Top-models epoch (The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum)

The exhibition showcases works of the famous photographer, the discoverer of top-models, a significant figure of the early 90s, a publisher and ideologist of the American magazine ELLE, Gilles Bensimon. The exhibition is dated to the release of a book Photography - a first retrospective of works of the famous photographer, which includes his best shots made during his 30-year career. As a witness of quickly changing tendencies in the world of fashion and design, Bensimon introduces a series of splendid portraits of well-known beauties and celebrities, every one being not only thoroughly psychological but reflecting a certain fashion time moment as well. Bensimon started working on ELLE in 1967, after he met the founder of the most popular fashion magazine Elen Lasareff in Paris. At that time Bensimon had just started his career of a photographer. At the age of 23 he received his first job with the French ELLE. From the very beginning Bensimon wanted to change the existing rules of fashion industry of his times. New vision of the world offered by the artist was based on freedom, movement, and life. His models did no more resemble dummies and became living women, full of joy and natural beauty. A stylist by vocation, an attentive observer, a true fashion connoisseur and lover, Bensimon has a rare ability to feel time. Bensimon loves charming women but refuses to show them in a grotesque manner. His photographs are simple, filled with the spirit of the time, he always shows the strong sides of any collection. Bensimon is married to Elle Macpherson, the famous top-model and one of the most beautiful woman in the world; is fond of all kinds of art; has his work, which fills his own life and lives of thankful 20-million ELLE's readership. Breath-taking success of the American ELLE in the world of fashion is usually seen as an achievement of its creative director and inspirer, Gilles Bensimon.