Horst Tappe, Fleming portrait photographer, dies aged 67

Horst Tappe, a German photographer known for portraits of literary and artistic luminaries including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Vladimir Nabokov and Alfred Hitchcock, died on Aug. 21 in Vevey, Switzerland. He was 67.

The cause was cancer, his friend and collaborator Charlotte Contesse said - reports the NY Times.

His most widely reproduced portraits include one of Picasso half in shadow and staring sideways, and a 1970 shot of Nabokov wearing knee pants and holding a butterfly net.

Other memorable photos include a wide-eyed Dalí in a Western shirt with arms crossed and Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, with hand on chin.

His photographs were exhibited widely and he published books of his collections of pictures of Nabokov and of the Austrian-born Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka. His Nabokov collection was recently exhibited in the United States at George Washington University and Columbia University.

Mr. Tappe befriended Nabokov in 1962 when the writer was staying at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Montreux, on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. They were introduced by a mutual friend, the actor Peter Ustinov. Over the next 15 years, he was allowed to photograph Nabokov at his most intimate: bent over his desk writing, walking the town with his wife, Vera, or catching butterflies on the grassy foothills of the Swiss Alps.

Mr. Tappe studied photography in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main. He continued his education in Vevey, before settling in Montreux in 1965.

Mr. Tappe is survived by his brother, Voelker, who lives in Germany.

Thanks to `Moore` for the alert.

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