Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg on 10 September 1933. He himself claimed his year of birth as 1938, later as 1935, and in 2008 vehemently claimed to celebrate his 70th birthday, leading to contradictions in his life dates. He learnt French at an early age, and in August 1952 moved to Paris where his father had an office and whose employees took care of him. Karl Lagerfeld soon earned a reputation as an educated workaholic and worked for major houses such as Chloé, Fendi and Chanel, before finally establishing his own fashion brand in the 1990s. He is considered to have discovered the top model Claudia Schiffer, but also worked with other well-known models such as Toni Garrn, Lara Stone and Freja Beha Erichsen. His favourite male model was Baptiste Giabiconi, whom he also set up as a photographer. In 2005, his fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld was sold to the US group Tommy Hilfiger. 

Lagerfeld was as gifted a photographer as he was a designer

Karl Lagerfeld came comparatively late to photography, picking up the camera only in the autumn of his glittering career. He was interested above all in the view beneath the surface: He, who like no other understood how to disguise reality with a wall of glamour, glitter and illusions, also showed a flair for the mysterious. Lagerfeld the art connoisseur liked to stage his models and pictures in the style of famous paintings, for example the photo Parade (1998), which pays homage to the Cubist painter Lyonel Feininger. Fine art played an important role for Lagerfeld who was particularly interested in 20th century German art as a collector, with a special focus on advertising posters. The master often placed his own fashion designs right in the picture, and photographed in black and white and colour - always guided by his own lucid intuition and visionary power – with an unrivalled understanding of aesthetics.

Growing interest in the photographic legacy

Karl Lagerfeld the photographer moved increasingly into the public eye, especially after the artist’s death. The Kunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle an der Saale dedicated the first posthumous retrospective to him which focused exclusively on his photographic life’s work. More than 300 works provided a glimpse of Lagerfeld’s wide-ranging interests, who mastered portraiture as well as landscape shots and abstract photo art. Everything was staged for Lagerfeld, nothing was left to chance, every tiny detail was the result of careful planning. The result is an extensive body of work that transcends the death of its creator with its timeless depth.

Karl Lagerfeld died in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris on 19 February 2019.