A wonderful example of the unusual perspectives Fricke has found in his work: During a prêt-à-porter show by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel in 2007, he took the opportunity to climb the steps of the Grand Palais in Paris when no one was looking.

At Gianni Versace’s final fashion show at the Pitti Uomo in Florence, top model Naomi Campbell aimed a gun at the audience. Shortly afterwards, in July 1997, the Italian fashion designer was shot dead in front of his villa in Miami.

Lady Gaga and Lorenzo Martone, husband of Marc Jacobs, during New York Fashion Week 2010.

A whole city under one roof: In 2014 Karl Lagerfeld recreated his adopted home of Paris for Chanel at the Grand Palais. Top models moved like passers-by through the faithfully recreated street scene flanked by rows of houses.

Unthinkable now: Models presenting fur fashion at the Römerberg in Frankfurt in 1989. The show was designed by Jutta Thomasius, who was working as a local journalist at the time.

In 1994, Jean-Christophe Ammann, then director of the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, brought Chanel to the museum for a very special fashion show. Top model Claudia Schiffer was among the participants.

This photo from an adidas event in New York illustrates the conditions in which photographers work at the leading international fashion shows. Side by side, some of them using their own ladders or stools, they do what it takes to get the perfect photo. In the heart of the action for FAZ: Helmut Fricke.

In the autumn of 2018, Karl Lagerfeld brought the summer to the catwalk in this show for Chanel. Models presented the spring collection on a Caribbean beach with shallow waves lapping at their bare feet. One more example of Lagerfeld’s impressive creativity.

Helmut Fricke