Frank Horvat: Very Similar - Tapa dura

Contemporary photographic portraits based on iconic historic paintings by one of the masters of fashion photography.

This is an extraordinary collection of women's portraits by Frank Horvat, one of the world's leading fashion photographers. Using well-known portrait paintings as a point of reference, Horvat explores not only themes of history and portraiture, but also the way in which women have been viewed over generations. It is a project that Horvat has undertaken painstakingly and with great determination over several years, totally independent from his commercial work. The resulting portraits are not bound by contemporary notions of beauty or the dictates of fashion, nor are they simply bare imitations of famous paintings. Instead they manage to transcend the elaborate artificiality of theft settings, and to capture qualities of individual beauty that are timeless and unchanging. Frank Horvat, born in Italy in 1928, is one of the world's reading photographers. His work was first published in 1951. His early work was featured in the legendary Picture Post as well as Paris Match and Life. In 1957, he began his first work in fashion. His work has been widely exhibited and has been published in several previous books.