Yves Saint Laurent’s Iconic Journey Through Photography: A New Book Tribute

Yves Saint Laurent recounts the history of fashion in the book Yves Saint Laurent et la photographie. The most famous photographers of the twentieth century have captured the designer for decades and now the Phaidon publishing house in collaboration with the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris, collect the snapshots in a book that pays tribute to the founder of the firm.

With an introduction by Madison Cox, president of the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, and Christoph Wiesner, director of the Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, the book brings together iconic and previously unpublished photographs from the maison’s archives.

“The life and work of Yves Saint Laurent are intertwined with what is often referred to as the golden age of photography,“ writes Madison Cox in his foreword. Polaroids of proofs, stolen moments from the ateliers at 5 avenue Marceau and intimate photos of the designer in his apartments come together in the book’s 160 pages.

Yves Saint Laurent et la photographie can be visited at the exhibition of the Festival des Rencontres d’Arles

With the participation of photographers such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Sarah Moon, Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton, Juergen Telles and Bettina Rheims, intimate moments from both Laurent’s personal and professional life are revealed.

Coinciding with the publication of the book, the Festival des Rencontres d’Arles is dedicating an exhibition to the same theme, from July 7th to October 5th, 2025. In collaboration with the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris, it brings together a selection of the photographs that make up the book Yves Saint Laurent et la photographie.

A dialogue between fashion and photography to which people close to the house such as Elsa Janssen, Simon Baker, Serena Bucalo-Mussely, Clémentine Cuinet and Alice Morin add narrative and critical pieces on fashion photography, its narrative power and the visual impact of Yves Saint Laurent’s work.