A lens on high fashion

Horst: His Work and His World, by Valentine Lawford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 384 pp. $55. Horst P. Horst's first published photographs appeared in French Vogue in 1931, and you can still see his work today in such magazines as House & Garden and Architectural Digest.

His life's story is told in the profusely illustrated ``Horst: His Work and His World,'' a volume containing image after elegant image of the high-society, high-fashion world in which Horst has worked and lived for over half a century.

His style is dramatic, with a (Greek) classical line, and in the biographical text written by his good friend Valentine Lawford, names of the famous are dropped in astonishing number. This is a book for those who want to know of style, photography division.

James Kaufmann reviews books regularly for the Monitor. -- 30 --