In this week’s blog post, Costume Society News Editor Dr Babette Radclyffe-Thomas reviews the first major European retrospective of Rico Puhlmann’s work in Rico Puhlmann: Fashion Photography 50s – 90s exhibition at the Museum für Fotographie in Berlin.
Fashion illustrations, photography and some of the most famous fashion faces of the late 20th century are on show at The Museum für Fotographie’s retrospective exhibition dedicated to Rico Puhlmann (1934-96). Puhlmann’s work covered the last four decades of the 20th century spanning a vast range of fashion media from 1950’s classic fashion illustrations to capturing the world’s supermodels for global fashion magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and GQ.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Britta Bommert, director of the Fashion Photography Collection at the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Hans-Michael Koetzle, Munich, co-curator, in close cooperation with the Rico Puhlmann Archive, Berlin.
“Rico Puhlmann's name and work was not as well-known globally as other fashion photographers. One reason is – for sure - his sudden death. He did not have the chance to ensure his lasting fame himself for example by publishing a monograph or initiating an exhibition. One goal was to change that. Over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Puhlmann was continuously commissioned by fashion editors to create fashion photographs for their magazines. This gave me the opportunity to present over four decades of fashion history. In addition, we show various magazines from four decades and therefore provide insight into the history of magazine publishing. And we have the opportunity to show the changing image of women and men over forty years. In my opinion these are good reasons for curating and realizing this exhibition,” Bommert said.
Rico Puhlmann, Erdfarbener Anzug aus Wolltweed von Paul Smith, Wollhemd im Polostil von Bill
Ditford Design, Kleid von Adrienne Vittadini, New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe), 1983,
Farbdiapositiv, 24 x 36 mm (Reproduktion), © Rico Puhlmann Archive(veröffentlicht in „The
Riches of Fall“, GQ / Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Nr. 8, August 1983)
The majority of the exhibits originate from Rico Puhlmann’s archive of works, which is administered by his brother and sister-in-law, Klaus and Anne Puhlmann. The archive is immense, spanning three rooms filled with negatives, contact sheets, prints, slides in various formats, specimen copies, shooting records, rolls of film and numerous drawings.
“The biggest challenge was selecting the photographs from the large number of works. In addition, we provided information about where each photo was published and what fashion was featured. That was a lot of work. It was also important to me to show a good selection of Rico Puhlmann's fashion films on appropriately equipped media stations. This is always a very special challenge.”
There are nearly 300 items on show and the exhibition is organised chronologically across one expansive room comprising six key themes and over 20 sub-themes organised thematically for example by publication or by location. The key themes are fashion illustration, fashion photography 50s to 60s, mobility and travel, fashion photography 70s to 90s, beauty images and finally metrosexuality. His independent work punctuates the exhibition curation.
“It was a mix of showing photos that were obviously important for Rico Puhlmann. At the same time, we wanted to show a representative selection of the fashion of the time, of the most important models and of motifs, which were typical for the time,” Bommert said.
Large blown-up images fill the walls at the end of the room and there are colour transparency reproductions, final magazine spreads, original illustrations, images and magazine double page spreads. An exhibition highlight are the two light boxes showing contact sheets from various photoshoots including one with supermodel Naomi Campbell, an image which also appeared in the V&A’s recent Naomi exhibition (see our blog post on that exhibition here). The variety of fashion media items included in the curaiton all give visitors a real feel for being behind the camera and Puhlmann’s creative processes.
The exhibition opens with ‘Fashion Illustration’ Puhlmann’s work as an illustrator in Berlin in the post-World War II period. Puhlmann had his first illustrations published while still a student and was published in Vogue Paris, German-language magazines and trade publications. He was inspired by illustrator Rene Grau and interestingly in this section of the exhibition, his mock layouts are displayed. He frequently pasted images together to create layouts, and rather than submitting individual illustrations, he would make suggestions on how his illustrations could be laid out for print.
Interestingly his career mirrored the dramatic changes in fashion media imagery, as shown throughout the exhibition, and from 1962 he moved exclusively into photography, capturing the 60s move from elegant ladies dressed in tailored suits with matching accessories to the youthquake movement in his photographs. His earliest work showcased models posing on the streets of West Berlin, often trying to block out the damage of WWII and celebrating the architectural symbols of New Berlin. The exhibition showcases images inspired by the Op Art movement with images depicting strong light and dark contrasts, and fashion photography’s move into studio settings.
Another highlight of the show is his work in 1960 for magazine stern who commissioned him to accompany representatives of eight German fashion houses on a promotional tour of the USA, presenting a new image of German women in global fashion.
Puhlmann’s creative versality and the changing fashion media landscape are shown as he moved from West Berlin to New York in 1970 where he was based for the remainder of his career. Capturing 1970s models like Cheryl Tieggs shot in global locations with bright imagery, he worked for magazines such as Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar until the 1990s. The exhibition showcases the wide range of covers, spreads and content he created during this time, especially in his role as chief photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. Interestingly, throughout his creative career, Puhlmann was heavily involved in each aspect of image making, such as model selection, makeup approval and choosing which accessories to use. He made fashion films for the Modejournal show produced by Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), which helped introduce American fashion to Berlin consumers. The exhibition plays two of these videos (1973 and 1976) on a loop in the centre of the exhibition.
Image courtesy of Dr Babette Radclyffe-Thomas.
In the 1980s he started working with the new era of supermodels and celebrities and his work in the 1980s for Fashions of the Times, the fashion supplement of the New York Times, is showcased in detail in the exhibition. The supplement presented American fashion over 280 pages, and the exhibition showcases multiple spreads from various editions.
In the early 1980s Puhlmann started working for Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ), creating series of black and white male portraits that conveyed the new men’s image and embodied the new term of metrosexuality.
The Rico Puhlmann exhibition runs until 15 February 2026. The museum also hosts the Helmut Newton Foundation which is currently showcasing examples of Newton’s Polaroid work.
Babette has previously reviewed other photography exhibitions, including Aldo Fallai for Giorgio Armani at Armani/Silos; revisit the post on our blog.
