Yves Saint Laurent’s very first job was with Christian Dior, who hired him in 1955. At 18, Saint Laurent was thin as a rail and sweet in his suit and tie, hair cut short, glasses a little geeky. Dior called him “my Dauphin,” and when Dior died, in 1957, Saint Laurent became head of the house. The dream job ended in 1960, when he was conscripted into the French Army and was replaced at Dior. Saint Laurent promptly had a nervous breakdown. After his discharge, and with the help of his partner Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent opened his own couture house in 1962. With success, he loosened up and partied. Saint Laurent’s hair grew wavy and blond, he dressed in velvet and safari suits. Photographs captured it all and then some. Eventually the designer appeared in one of his own ads—1971’s launch for YSL’s fragrance Pour Homme, in which he was naked except for his signature eyeglasses. That photo was taken by Jeanloup Sieff, and as Bergé said, “It was just a provocation on the part of Yves Saint Laurent.” This exhibition at ICP looks at the relationship between Saint Laurent, his house, and photography over four-plus decades. The photographs, contact sheets, magazine shoots, and personal images are the work of Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, Robert Doisneau, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, Duane Michals, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, David Seidner, Andy Warhol, and more. —Laura Jacobs