André Ostier

André Ostier (1906–1994) was a French photographer well known for his artists' portraits and photo reports on "la vie parisienne" Born into a middle-class Parisian family, he began his career as a bookseller ("À La Page") and then as a journalist before becoming a photographer, taking a series of portraits of artists and fashion photos published in the pre-war illustrated press.

In Paris, he photographed the occupied city as well as the Château de Versailles with its sandbagged sculptures, images that inspired Paul Eluard when they were published in Vogue français in 1945.

After the war, André Ostier, whose reputation was already well established, became friends with Christian Dior and Jacques Fath whose new-look creations he photographed.

The trips follow one another: India, China, Thailand, North Africa, Europe... André Ostier died in January 1994, leaving behind a body of work that brings together numerous photographic testimonies, precious for the understanding of the great sociological, intellectual and artistic periods that forged the modernity of the 20th century.

He captured the creative spirit and environment of painters such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, etc.