CHRIS VON WANGENHEIM 1976 DIOR CAMPAIGN RESURFACEd

## The Lost Genius of 1976 Chris von Wangenheim shot 'Fetching Is Your Dior' in 1976, three years before Helmut Newton's iconic White Women series would define luxury fashion photography. The German photographer's provocative vision for Christian Dior anticipated the erotic minimalism that would dominate fashion advertising through the 1980s. Galerie Marcelle's recent Instagram revival of this forgotten campaign highlights von Wangenheim's influence on contemporary fashion photography. The Paris gallery has built a reputation since 2019 for unearthing overlooked masterpieces from fashion's golden age. ## Death at 39 Changed Everything Von Wangenheim died tragically in 1981 at age 39, just five years after creating this Dior masterpiece. His death robbed fashion photography of one of its most innovative voices during the medium's most transformative decade. The photographer's career spanned only 12 years but influenced generations of fashion imagemakers including Steven Meisel and Mario Testino. His work for Dior in 1976 established the template for luxury brand campaigns that persists today. ## Dior's Revolutionary Marketing Moment Christian Dior commissioned von Wangenheim's campaign during Marc Bohan's tenure as creative director from 1960 to 1989. The 1976 shoot represented Dior's boldest advertising statement since the New Look launch in 1947. The campaign's title 'Fetching Is Your Dior' played with double meanings that would become von Wangenheim's signature approach. Fashion historians credit this work with pioneering the conceptual wordplay that defines luxury advertising today. ## The Gallery's Fashion Archaeology Galerie Marcelle opened in Paris in 2018, focusing exclusively on fashion photography from 1960 to 1990. Owner Marcelle Dupont discovered the von Wangenheim Dior prints in a private collection auction in 2024. The gallery's Instagram account has gained 47,000 followers by sharing rare fashion photography discoveries weekly. Dupont estimates that 60 percent of significant 1970s fashion campaigns remain undocumented in public archives. ## Von Wangenheim's Technical Innovation The photographer pioneered high contrast lighting techniques that influenced Richard Avedon's later portrait work. His 1976 Dior images used stark black and white processing that wouldn't become fashionable until the 1990s. Von Wangenheim shot exclusively on medium format Hasselblad cameras, producing images with unprecedented detail for fashion advertising. Technical analysis reveals he used tungsten lighting setups that required 8 second exposures. ## Fashion Photography's What If Story Fashion critics speculate that von Wangenheim's survival past 1981 could have changed luxury advertising history. His aesthetic vision predated the minimalism that would dominate Calvin Klein and Jil Sander campaigns by a full decade. The photographer's influence extends to contemporary artists like Collier Schorr and Ryan McGinley who cite his work as inspiration. Museum curators estimate his complete archive contains fewer than 200 surviving prints. ## The Collector Market Awakens Von Wangenheim prints have appreciated 340 percent in value since 2020 according to photography auction specialists. His Dior campaign images now command prices between $8,000 and $15,000 at auction. Galerie Marcelle's exhibition schedule includes a major von Wangenheim retrospective planned for September 2026. The show will feature 45 previously unseen images including outtakes from the 1976 Dior session.