Henry Clarke (1918-1996) began his career in the fashion world as a background and accessorizing assistant at Vogue magazine in 1945. Inspired by the iconic photographers he worked with such as Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn and Horst P. Horst, Clarke decided to quit his position and pick up the camera for himself.
In 1949, he left New York, hoping to start a profession as a freelance photographer. Traveling to Paris, Clarke soon found work with major fashion magazines like Femina, L’Album de Figaro and Harper’s Bazaar. By the 1950s, he was well known for his sophisticated black and white fashion photography .
During the Vogue reign of Diana Vreeland in the 1960s and 70s, Clarke flew to exotic locations such as India, Mexico, Sicily, Iran, Jordan and Syria for vibrant, opulent editorials that often took up to 20 pages. With the help of muses such as Marisa Berenson, Suzy Parker and Veruschka, Henry Clarke captured elegance and beauty in a way that still feels modern over fifty years later.
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