Frank Horvat was born on April 28, 1928, in Abbazia, Italy (now Opatija, Croatia). In 1939, his family fled to Italian-speaking Switzerland, where he spent his youth. Originally aspiring to become a writer, but first studied painting at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson and photojournalism, he taught himself photography. His dream was to experience real life, to travel, and to see the world through his eyes and his camera. In January 1951, he published his first photo reportage in the Italian magazine Epoca. In 1952, he travelled to Pakistan and then on to India. In 1954, he travelled to Israel and the West Bank. His work was published in renowned magazines such as Die Woche in Zurich, Paris Match, Picture Post, and Life in New York. In 1955, his photograph of a Muslim wedding in Lahore, Pakistan, was even exhibited in the legendary The Family of Man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In the mid-1950s, Paris became his home base, and in 1957 William Klein introduced him to Jacques Moutin, the art director of Jardin des Modes. Horvat recalled, “I was eager to work for fashion magazines, probably because I was always attracted to women who were the exact opposite of my mother.” Over the following years, Horvat revolutionised fashion photography by using a 35mm Leica camera, favoring natural light, and capturing his vision of photographing fashion 'on the street' rather than in a studio. For his shoots, he took his models to the Paris metro, the racecourse, or the Les Halles, the wholesale food market. The influence of his reportage photography was unmistakable. “Without the stories you can tell, I wouldn't have been really interested in fashion.” This was an era when prêt-à-porter fashion was emerging, and Horvat's fashion photographs captured the spirit of the times. Within a few years, he became one of the world's most sought-after fashion photographers, shooting not only for Jardin des Modes as well as for French Elle, British Vogue, Glamour, and Harper's Bazaar.
© 2025, Birgit Filzmaier