FLAIR
Charisma, Atmosphere, Finesse
When summer turns up the heat, it’s not just the temperatures that rise – so does the desire for images that oscillate between longing, overexposure, and daydream. A glance, a patch of sunlight on bare skin, a folded towel by a hotel pool: this current selection from our collection brings together photographic perspectives that capture summer in all its facets. What unites these works is a certain flair – that elusive quality between charisma, atmosphere, and finesse.
Stars like Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, or Steve McQueen appear at the beach, in a convertible, or over breakfast – seemingly casual, yet precisely composed. Alongside them are quieter scenes filled with sensuality: a window in Vienna’s 3rd district, the curve of a bare back, a sun-drenched day in Calabria.
Between vintage glamour, ironic glances, and poetic observation unfolds a visual feeling of summer that feels both nostalgic and immediate. Flair here is more than just style – it is attitude, spirit of time, and visual language.
Particular attention is drawn to René Burri’s monumental work “Hacienda San Cristobal” (1976). The large-format print presents a courtyard of architectural clarity, bathed in rich light – a scene shaped by formal rigor and atmospheric depth. Burri, renowned as a member of Magnum and a chronicler of political moments, reveals here his sensitivity to space, structure, and the interplay of surface and shadow. It is a work poised between documentary precision and painterly composition.
