Arthur Elgort was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, and raised in New York City.
He attended
Stuyvesant High School and then Hunter College where he
studied painting. Finding painting
to be too lonely an art form, he
moved on to photography which he took to naturally. He
began his career
working as a photo assistant to Gus Peterson whose natural shooting
style
greatly contributed to the lively and casual style Mr. Elgort is
so well known for today. He
also attributes much of his style to a
lifelong love of music and dance, particularly jazz
Elgort's 1971 debut in British Vogue created a sensation in the Fashion
Photography world
where his soon-to-be iconic "snapshot" style and
emphasis on movement and natural light
liberated the idea of fashion
photography. In September 2008, he told Teen Vogue that he
credited Mademoiselle
for his big break: "They were really brave and gave me a chance.
It was
the first time I was shooting a cover instead of a half-page here or
there." From there,
he rose to fame working for such elite magazines as
International and American Vogue,
Glamour, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Teen
Vogue among others and shooting advertising campaigns
with numerous
international fashion labels such as Chanel, Valentino, and Yves Saint
Laurent.
Elgort quickly became one of the most well-known and emulated
photographers in the world.
His early body of work from the 1970s and
1980s is often considered representative of the
fashion industry at the
time.
Elgort published his first of several books, Personal Fashion Photographs, in 1983 and later his
world wide best seller Models Manual
during the super model boom in 1994. His other two
books, Camera Crazy
(2004) and Camera Ready (1997), focus on his love of cameras and
taking
pictures. In addition to his still photographs Mr. Elgort is also
recognized for his
work as a filmmaker. He has made three films
including Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet
Story and the documentary
film Colorado Cowboy that follows legendary cowboy, Bruce
Ford, which
won the award for Best Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival
in
1994.
Today Mr. Elgort continues shooting for American Vogue and many other
Conde Nast
publications, as well as working on his most recent 2009
advertising campaigns with Via
Spiga and Liz Claiborne with Isaac
Mizrahi. He lives in New York City with his wife
and three children.
Arthur Elgort's works are exhibited in the permanent collection of the International
Center of Photography in New York, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as well
as in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. His work is also represented by galleries
around the world including Staley Wise Gallery in New York City.
