Yves Saint Laurent and Photography

Yves Saint Laurent and Photography traces how the medium can craft an identity, influence viewers and ignite conversation. Photographs are documents of their time: they shape how we observe the world around us and become visual touchstones for memory. The Maison’s namesake maintained close relationships with many photographers and worked with them consistently. Yves understood photography’s vital power in forming his identity, and valued its ability to challenge social expectations and inspire change.

His appreciation for photography reflects the International Center of Photography’s mission: to understand how photographic images reach an audience and affect contemporary behaviour. The museum has chosen to highlight the interdependent relationship between fashion and photography, illustrating how both have prompted cultural change through marketing campaigns, by pushing against traditional gender roles and by intersecting with important moments throughout history.

On display are nearly three hundred photographs and archival objects tracing the chronological story of the eponymous fashion house and the life of the decorated couturier. The first section features fashion photographs and portraits of Yves Saint Laurent by celebrated photographers including Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, Robert Doisneau, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, Duane Michals, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, David Seidner and Andy Warhol. Viewers have the rare chance to see lesser-known images alongside more recognisable ones. These photographs shaped the mythology of the famously shy dreamer, who used the visual medium to construct his public image.

The second section of the exhibition draws on physical objects from the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris archives to show visitors how the images that shaped the history of the House were shared with the public at the time, and the significant part they played in building its legacy. Magazines, press clippings, campaign catalogues, contact sheets and notebooks appear alongside personal photographs belonging to the designer.

Yves Saint Laurent’s influence transcends his work; his genius remains a point of reference in fashion and art. He founded the couture House with Pierre Bergé after being dismissed as creative director of Christian Dior. His designs reinterpreted traditionally masculine silhouettes for the modern woman, paving the way for a new era of femininity in fashion. In 1966, he launched Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, a ready-to-wear line that honoured world-renowned artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh, as well as places across the globe. Marrakech was an especially intriguing city for the couturier. The house closed its doors in 2002, and Yves Saint Laurent dedicated his final years to preserving the decades-long work he and his co-founder had built at the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent. Six years later, he died in Paris, and his ashes were scattered at Majorelle Garden, which he and Bergé owned in Morocco. In 2017, the foundation opened two museums in Paris and Marrakech. That same year, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris opened in the hôtel particulier at 5 Avenue Marceau, which served as the address of the couture house for nearly thirty years. It is currently under renovation and is scheduled to reopen in autumn 2027.