Within a few years, however, Horst developed a more frankly oranamental style that was unmistakably his own. His combination of extravagant visual fantasy and vibrant sensuality sets his fashion photography quite apart from those of Vogue's two other principal photographers of the 1930's, Steichen and Cecil Beaton. Gradually introducing more imaginatively furnished sets and drapery, Horst arranged his tableaux with an eye for elegant undulating lines and sophisticated lighting effects. Amid rich surroundings, his model's face might be thrown unexpectedly into silhouette, giving rise to a mood of calculated mystery and anticipation.

In addition to his fashion photographs, Horst produced during the 1930's a series of highly regarded portraits of the leading personalities of the day, including Dietrich, Dali, Cocteau, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Often done outside the studio, these portraits lack the formal perfection of Horst's fashion work, but effectively transmit the air of sometimes desperate gaiety that marked the period between the wars. Although he remains active, and has published highly successful interior studies and patterned abstractions from natural forms, Horst continues to be irrevocably linked with the sensibility of the 1930's.
--Christopher Phillips1906 Born in Weissenfels, Germany