Antoine Verglas Joins 1905 Contemporary: Supermodel Portraits Meet Fine Art Photography
Antoine Verglas has always been a storyteller with his camera. Born in Paris in 1962, his first steps behind the lens were not in a studio, but on the streets of his city, where he carried with him a curiosity for people and a desire to capture what happens in the space between glamour and truth. After studying business and communications, Verglas found his way into television, co-hosting a French program that profiled fashion models and celebrities. That job, seemingly casual at first, would become his entry point into the fashion world. He wasn’t just interviewing models; he was photographing them, forming the foundation of a career that would come to define an era.
When Verglas moved to New York in the early 1990s, he brought with him the distinctly French eye for intimacy and authenticity. At a time when fashion photography was known for its gloss and artifice, he offered something radically different. He photographed the world’s most celebrated models, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford, not in carefully constructed studio sets, but in their own homes, their own environments, often using natural light. The images felt disarmingly honest. They revealed allure without pretense, glamour without rigidity. This candid, cinematic style caught the attention of Vogue, Elle, GQ, and Vanity Fair, catapulting Verglas into the upper echelon of editorial photography.
The “Verglas Touch,” as it became known, was that ability to collapse the distance between viewer and subject. His models were still icons, but they felt closer, more human, more alive in his images. His camera sought not perfection, but presence. It was a style that shifted fashion photography in the 1990s and helped shape the very idea of the supermodel. His portraits didn’t just document beauty; they captured charisma, vulnerability, and the fleeting electricity of a moment.
Over the decades, Verglas built an archive of work that reads like a cultural diary of fashion, celebrity, and allure. Yet what makes his photographs endure is not simply their glamour, but their intimacy. They are documents of a time, yes, but they also speak to something timeless—the human presence behind the icon, the emotion behind the pose. That is why, in recent years, his work has entered the realm of fine art collecting. To own a Verglas photograph is to hold a piece of cultural history, but also an artwork that resonates with authenticity and cinematic power.
Now, Verglas brings a curated selection of his work to 1905 Contemporary. The gallery is proud to present these photographs not only as fashion history, but as part of a broader dialogue around contemporary art and collecting. For 1905, his arrival strengthens a program that champions photography in all its forms, bridging the worlds of fashion, celebrity, and fine art. Verglas’ portraits of the supermodel generation, once seen on the pages of glossy magazines, now stand as cultural documents and coveted works for discerning collectors.
This September, 1905 Contemporary will introduce its first presentation of Antoine Verglas’ photographs, offering collectors exclusive access to a carefully chosen group of prints. It is a rare opportunity to acquire work from one of the most celebrated photographers of his generation, a man whose images helped define the look and feel of the 1990s and whose lens continues to reveal the intimacy behind allure.
Get in touch with our team today to receive the collectors catalog.
