Horst P. Horst_Photographer

Horst P. Horst, a master of light and deep shadow whose photographs of fashion and fashionable creatures like Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward evoked the glamorous 1930's as well as his own chic circle in Paris, died yesterday at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 93.

The photographer, who was known from the beginning of his expansive career as, simply, Horst, had been in failing health since suffering from pneumonia last year, said Richard J. Horst, his manager and archivist, who also became his adopted son.

Best known for his classical images of models and society figures posed in dramatic, often Greek-inspired settings, Horst started taking pictures in 1931 as a protege of the aristocratic photographer George Hoyningen-Huene and continued to work until 1991, photographing subjects as diverse as Jean Cocteau, Harry S. Truman, Maria Callas, Gertrude Stein and Andy Warhol, as well as settings like the Iranian deserts and interiors of Irish castles.