A talented photographer, from 1935 to 1937 Brodovitch captured several ballet companies on a 35mm camera with slow exposure. This resulted in blurred images and high-contrast, grainy negatives exhibiting burnt-out areas of flare from the stage lighting. This sharply violated the then accepted conventions of good photography. The images were published in the 1945 photobook Ballet. Only a few hundred copies were ever printed, and most of them were gifted to the artist’s friends.
i learned from him [brodovitch] that if, when you look in your camera, you see an image you have ever seen before, don't click the shutter.
—hiro, fashion photographer
Alexey Brodovitch. Photo by Benedict J. Fernandez. © 2006 Benedict J. Fernandez.
In 1941, Brodovitch started Design Laboratory—a series of informal evening classes for those aspiring to magazine work. The course focused on graphic design and photography and was held in New York till 1966. Students’ worst offense was to present something Brodovitch would call “boring,” while the best compliment one could hope for was “interesting.” During his life, Brodovitch discovered many of the key photographers, artists, and designers of his time: Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Cartier Bresson, Frank Roberts, Jean Cocteau, A. M. Cassandre, Felix Topolski, and Saul Steinberg. Today editorial professionals influenced by Brodovitch and his students continue to shape the course of modern graphic design.
Alexey Brodovitch’s class at The Design Laboratory. Photographic page spread from Kerry William Purcell’s book Alexey Brodovitch, 2002.
editor-in-chief
diana kasay
editor
zhdan philippov
layout designer and art director
stas aki
issue designer
vasily podryadchikov
text author, content manager
tsvetelina miteva
stories. alexey brodovitch