From Chanel to Picasso: Paris’ bohemia through the eyes of Boris Lipnitzki (PHOTOS)

Boris Lipnitzki (real name Haim) was born into a Jewish family in the Russian Empire’s Chernigov Governance. He worked as a photographer in Odessa and Warsaw, but then, due to the pogroms and revolution, he moved to Central Europe with his family. 

In the 1920s, he found himself in Paris, where noble Russian emigres got him acquainted with French fashion designer Paul Poiret. He asked the photographer to take pictures of his collections, which brought Lipnitzki his first fame. 

He went on to become one of the first fashion photographers in Paris. From Pablo Picasso to Coco Chanel, one by one, the most famous people – artists, filmmakers, designers, actresses and ballerinas – were caught by his camera. 

Pablo Picasso in his Madoura workshop in Vallauris on the French Riviera, 1948

Woman driving Chrysler at Champ de Mars. Paris, July 1938

Spanish fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga. Paris, 1927

Coco Chanel. Paris, July 1936

Tsuguharu Foujita. A French artist of Japanese descent, 1925

An exhibition of Boris Lipnitzki’s works will be held at the Roger-Viollet gallery in Paris from October 12, 2023 to January 20, 2024.