An Exhibition That Shows Just How Much Yves Saint Laurent Loved the Camera
At the Rencontres d’Arles photo festival, hundreds of images explore the life and work of Yves Saint Laurent.
One of the largest and most popular shows at the Rencontres d’Arles photo festival in Southern France is “Yves Saint Laurent and Photography,” an expansive exhibition that explores the life and work of the designer. Among the hundreds of images on view is a boundary-breaking portrait by Jeanloup Sieff. It’s a nude of the courtier that was used in ads to promote the launch of Saint Laurent’s men’s fragrance, Pour Homme. Shot in 1971, when Saint Laurent was in his mid 30s, it shows the most important designer of the moment wearing nothing but oversized eyeglasses—and, one would imagine, his brand new scent. It’s sexy.
The show is on view through October 5 in the colossal exhibition space Mécanique Générale, at the Luma Foundation’s art campus in Arles. It includes two different sections. There’s a gallery lined with 80 photos of the couturier himself, bracketed by iconic portraits by Irving Penn from 1957—at the start of Saint Laurent’s career—and by Patrick Demarchelier from 2004, after Saint Laurent retired. Many of the 20th century’s most famous photographers helped forge the public image of both him and of his brand, including Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, and Helmut Newton. Throughout the gallery, there’s also backstage images at historic runway shows, mostly from the 1980s.
“Many of these images are known to us, but the images had never been framed or exhibited in a museum context,” says Madison Cox, president of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation.
A second interior gallery has a more intimate arrangement of multimedia meant to evoke a cabinet of curiosities. Here, photos hang above waist-high vitrines crammed with archival treasures: contact sheets, vintage magazines, press clippings, personal photographs, actual cameras (e.g. an ancient Polaroid), and other mementos.
Guy Bourdin Models from the Fall-Winter 1976 haute couture collection, known as “Opéra–Ballets Russes,” Sheraton Hotel, Vogue (Paris), September 1976. Courtesy of Yves Saint Laurent / The Guy Bourdin Estate 2025
Jeanloup Sieff Costume worn by Zizi Jeanmaire, designed by Yves Saint Laurent for the show Zizi, je t’aime [Zizi, I love you], Paris, 1972
On opening day, Cox gave W a tour of the exhibition, pausing every few feet to greet friends, curators, and fashion-buffs from around the world. He stopped in front of two images from early in the couturier’s career. In the first photograph, from 1957, Loomis Dean captured Saint Laurent as a forlorn young man, eyes downcast, all in black, leaning against a wall in a small courtyard. Saint Laurent was a young protégé of Christian Dior when Dior died of a heart attack at 52. The photo is from the day of Dior’s funeral.
“He is on the cusp of what his destiny is going to be,” explains Cox. Shortly after, Saint Laurent learned that he, at just 21, was to be handed the reins of the House of Dior, the most important fashion house in France. “He is on the cusp of what his destiny is going to be,” explains Cox.
The second photograph, taken the following year by Henry Dalman, shows Saint Laurent, “already launched out in that destiny,” as Cox puts it. In the image, the couturier is surrounded by the bustle of Manhattan’s 7th Avenue. “Same man, a year difference. Shoulders are set back. He's confident,” says Cox. A year into running Dior, Saint Laurent had already realized that photography “is so powerful in creating a brand and creating an imagery around him.”
Evening dress worn by Naomi Campbell, Fall/Winter 1987 haute couture collection, dressing room at 5 avenue Marceau, Paris, July 1987. Polaroid taken by the fashion house staff
Embroidered ensemble worn by Anna Marie Cseh, Fall-Winter 1999 haute couture collection, 5 avenue Marceau, Paris, July 1999. Polaroid taken by the fashion house staff
The exhibition in Arles is just one of the “hors les murs” (outside the walls) events happening while the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is closed for major renovations. Cox hopes “Yves Saint Laurent and Photography” will travel, especially to the U.S. Meanwhile, a new book of the same title from Phaidon tells much of the story. Among the images are texts from Cox; Christoph Wiesner, the head of Rencontres d'Arles; and the co-curators of the exhibition, Simon Baker and Elsa Jansen (she is also director of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris).
Surprisingly, what’s not on view here are garments. “It is our incredible archives, which I find personally have really been under-exploited,” says Cox. When the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris reopens in late 2027, the new space will include a big new research center for scholars not just of style, but also of the rich history that surrounds it.
