Guy Bourdin.
New York. Bloomingdale's. 1976. First edition. Wrappers, staple-bound. Landscape, 36 pages. Illustrated with photographs by Guy Bourdin throughout. 180 x 255mm (7 x 10"). 0.1kg. . English. Fine; very slight wear to black wrappers; the nicest copy we've seen.
A ground-breaking and highly-collectable catalogue, Sighs and Whispers features the photography of Guy Bourdin and was a lingerie catalogue produced for Bloomingdale's. Bourdin was given carte blanche by Bloomingdale's and they did not see any photos until after he had finished the project. The models were all unknown New Yorkers, found by Bourdin after he dismissed the 65 professional models who had been sent to him as not being beautiful enough. This printing was issued as an advertising supplement to the New York Times. In an accompanying article Joan Kron described the catalogue - 'The photos are all ambiguous vignettes, suggestive of je ne sais quoi - smoldering-satin-eroticism, triple-bedded double entendres, Stepford wifery, Bergman heavy breathing, and Story of O-isms... Bloomingdale's expects the catalog to become a collector's item'. It is the only 'book' of Bourdin's work published during his lifetime. The sexually provocative photographs caused a sensation in the 1970s and heavily-influenced the development of the "sex sells" trend in advertising.
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