Frank Horvat Biography
Frank Horvat was born in Opatija, which is currently located in Croatia, in April 1928. The city was home to Italian, German, Croatian, and Slovenian cultures, and this diverse environment influenced Horvat's thirst for knowledge, exploration, and adventure throughout his youth. Raised as a citizen of Europe and the world, he moved from place to place to do various jobs and tell new stories, unable to settle in one place. He purchased his first camera, a Retinamat 35mm, at age 17 at the suggestion of a friend who would "help him with girls", but did not actively pursue photography until his twenties, when His failures have distanced him from his ambitions of becoming a painter or writer. Motivated by the camera and removed from the war, he traveled to Asia to work as a freelance photojournalist for two years, before settling in London, New York and Paris. The 1950s were a turning point for Horvat as a fashion photographer, with his photographs sought after by "Elle", "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar". The 1960s represented the peak of his career as a fashion photographer and photojournalist, with him undertaking new travels to distant countries between fashion shoots. In the 70s he began to distance himself from magazines and trace his own indefinite path, rediscovering the desire to experiment, tackling a wide range of new themes and creative challenges. His growth as a realistic and modern photographer came to a halt when he contracted an eye infection, but instead of stopping he replaced sight with sound, dedicating himself to interviewing many of his talented colleagues. Once recovered, he returns to photography, this time focusing on the emerging world of information technology, which allows him to "undermine reality" by removing what is not needed or adding what is missing. His constant desire to discover and try something new led him to constantly change his style and themes. Despite this, Horvat has always been a great admirer of Henry Cartier-Bresson, fascinated by his philosophy of "freezing the moment in infinite time", which is the essence of photography.
