Today, I bring to you the delicious, adorably quirky, iconic black and white fashion photos by German photographer Rico Puhlmann. One of the darlings of fifties- and sixties-era French Vogue, Puhlmann was one of the most influential fashion photographers in Europe, and his images are perfect time capsules of what was happening in fashion at the time. His sense of humor, his clear rapport with the models, and his great skill with a camera all combined to create a truly impressive body of work. I love how his models seem perfectly confident in their fabulousness, even though the styling and poses are totally over-the-top. In particular, the photos from the sixties (like the one above) remind me of Patsy Stone’s modeling flashbacks on “Absolutely Fabulous.”

By the seventies, Puhlmann had started working in color and had moved to New York to work as a permanent freelance photographer for some of the world’s most popular fashion magazines including Glamour, GQ, and Harper’s Bazaar. In addition to his fashion work, he eventually made a name for himself as one of the leading portrait photographers of the time. I’m not going to explore his later works and his portraiture today, but they’re definitely worth checking out on the Rico Puhlmann Archive website.

All images property of the Rico Puhlmann Archive.