Fashion as Photograph // 29th February 2012
Fashion as Photograph // 29th February 2012
- Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items.
- Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle.
- Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories.
- Because of its image of being “glamorous,” “stylish,” “fun” and even “lucrative,” fashion photography has become an industry entirely on its own.
- Commercial field: serving illustration as a product
- Ghost manikin (fashion still life)
- The first permanent photograph was taken in 1826, in France.
- This photograph was produced on a puter plate.
- This form of photography was not reproducible.
Nicephore Niepce's earliest surviving photograph of a scene from nature, circa 1826.
"View from the Window at Le Gras" Saint-Loup-de-Varennes (France).
Louis Daguerre 1838
- One-off imagery
- Used for portraiture
- Long exposures
Boulevard de Temple 1838
William Henry Fox Talbot
- new processes
- can not reproduce photo's
- Subjects to be photographed were often celebs of the day.
Virginia Oldoini
- fashion was her identity
- one of the first fashion models.
- Photographed by Adolphe Braun, 1856
- Vriginia Oldoini directs her own shoots, as well as modelling
- Her vanity project led her to get into a lot of debt over the years.
- She often wears masks in her photographs to hide her face, making fashion the dominant focus in her shoots.
- Virginia oldoini chose to photograph her own feet and legs, this was often considered risky at the time and some people considered it to represent a 'sexual' element within the photography.
Age of the fashion magazine
- Improvements in the halftone printing (dot) process means photographs can be reproduced in magazines
- First 10 years of the 1900's
- Before this, drawn illustrations were used.
Petersons magazine plate; 1888
- Edward Steichen photographs Paul Poirets designs for Art et Decoration, 1911
Paul Poiret 1879-1944
- releases the female body
- freedom from corsetry
- House of worth (Charles Worth; father of haute couture)
- clothing cut along straight lines
- influenced by antique dress-draping
- Early modern fashion shoot
- He was a photographer for the Condé Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair from 1923–1938, and concurrently worked for many advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson. During these years Steichen was regarded as the best known and highest paid photographer in the world
- While at MoMA, in 1955 he curated and assembled the exhibit The Family of Man.
Vogue vs. Harpers Bazaar
- leaders in fashion photography in the 1920's and 1930's
- Hoyningen-Huene for HB (photographs for Madame Vionnet)
- Horst P Horst for Vogue
- Cecil Beaton for british vogue
Cecil Beaton
- royal Photographer
- British Vogue and Vanity Fair
- Beaton photographed and was a member of the "British Yong Things" in the 1920's/1930's
- Prolific diarist; six volumes of diaries were published, spanning the years 1922–1974.
- Recently a number of unexpurgated diaries have been published. These differ immensely in places to Beaton's original publications. Fearing libel suits in his own lifetime, it would have been foolhardy for Beaton to have included some of his more frank and incisive observations.
- A group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.
- They threw elaborate fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London, and drank heavily and experimented with drugs—all of which was enthusiastically covered by the journalists such as Tom Driberg.
- They inspired a number of writers, including Nancy Mitford (Highland Fling), Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time), Henry Green (Party Going) and the poet John Betjeman (A Subaltern's Love Song).
- Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies is a satirical look at this scene.
- Cecil Beaton began his career in photography by documenting this set, of which he was a member.
- Designed set, costumes, and lighting for broadway.
Queen Elizabeth II in 1968
Lee Miller (1907 - 1977)
- Photographed by Steichen
- American photographer and fashion model at age 19
- she was stopped from walking in front of a car on a Manhattan street by the founder of Vogue magazine, Condé Nast, thus launching her modeling career when she appeared on the cover of the March 1927 edition in an illustration by George Lepape.
- Beame one of the most sought after models in NY
- Goes to Paris in 1929 with photographer Man Ray
- Involved in the surrealist movement in photography
War Correspondent
- In 1944 she became a correspondent accredited to the US Army, and teamed up with Time Life photographer David E. Scherman.
- She followed the US troops overseas on 'D' Day + 20. She was probably the only woman combat photo-journalist to cover the war in Europe and among her many exploits she witnessed the siege of St Malo, the Liberation of Paris, the fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace, the Russian/American link up at Torgau, the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau.
- She billeted in both Hitler and Eva Braun's houses in Munich, and photographed Hitler's house Wachenfeld at Berchtesgaden in flames on the eve of Germany's surrender.
- Penetrating deep into Eastern Europe, she covered harrowing scenes of children dying in Vienna, peasant life in post war Hungary and finally the execution of Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy.
Buchenwald Concentration Camp (1945)
Louise Dahl Wolfe
- From 1936 to 1958 Dahl-Wolfe was a staff fashion photographer at Harper's Bazaar.
- From 1958 until her retirement in 1960, Dahl-Wolfe worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue, and other periodicals.
- "Environmental" fashion photography
- In 1928, she married the sculptor Meyer Wolfe, who constructed many of her backdrops for photo shoots.
Night Bathing 1939
David Bailey
- British Vogue
- The film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, concerns the work and sexual habits of a London fashion photographer played by David Hemmings and is largely based on Bailey.
- He "Swinging London" scene was aptly reflected in his Box of Pin-Ups (1964): a box of poster-prints of 1960s celebrities and socialites including Terence Stamp, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, PJ Proby, Cecil Beaton, Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol and notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins.
Mick Jagger
Richard Avedon
- Avedon worked for Harper's Bazaar until 1966
- He then moved to Vogue where he remained until his career ended
- He published the book 'In the American West'
- Avedon did not conform to the standard technique of taking fashion photographs, where models stood emotionless and seemingly indifferent to the camera.
- Instead, Avedon showed models full of emotion, smiling, laughing, and, many times, in action.
"In the American West"
- Bill Curry, Drifter
- Interstate 40, Yukon, Oklahoma
- 1985
Helmut Newton 1920-2004
- Vogue and Harper's Bazaar
- Sado maochistic element to some works
- Treatment of the nude
- Self portrait with wife and models 1981
Juergen Teller
- German Photographer
- Photos in The Face and Vogue
- Teller has worked in collaboration with Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood
- Works predominantly with musicians
- Annie Morton (1996)
- Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, Germany (1984–1986). He emigrated to London, England in 1986.
- Teller's fashion photographs have been featured in The Face, Vogue (US, France, England, Italy), Another, Index, W Magazine, Self Service, Details, Purple, i-D, and 032c, among others. Since 2004, Teller has shot campaigns for Marc Jacobs.
- He has also shot campaigns for Vivienne Westwood.
- Teller has recently collaborated with Céline.
- He frequently works with the musician Björk.
Corrine Day (1965-2010)
- British fashion photographer and model
- Worked for 'The Face' and 'Vogue'
- Vogue cover with Kate Moss credited with the beginnings of the trend for the 'waif' look.
- Day used Kate Moss as the model in an eight page fashion story for 'The Face' in July 1990.
- The story showcased garments by Romeo Gigli, Joseph Tricot, Ralph Lauren and a feather head-dress frm the now-defunct Coven Garden Boutique 'World'.
- Corrine Day unfortunately died at the young age of 45 from a Brain Tumour.
- Corinne Day produced a documentary Project of her friend 'Tara' which was exhibited at Gimpel Fils gallery in 2000.
- It showed how her friends life deteriorated through the use of drugs and alcohol and how she coped as a mother.
Terry Richardson
- Idealised bodies
- Book 'Terryworld' published in 2004
- US Photographer
- Has worked for Vogue, Vanity Fair, ID Magazine, and Harper's Bazaar.
- Graphic Sexual subject matter.
- Line between pornography and fashion has been erased.
Fashion Blogging.
- Democratises fashion photography
- Anyone can write about or photograph fashion
- Tavi Gevinson's "Style Rookie"
- American fashion blogger. She began her blog, "Style Rookie" on March 31, 2008 at age 11.
- Initially, her parents did not completely know what Tavi was doing until she asked for their permission to appear in a New York Times magazine story.
- Since then, she has had as many as 50,000 readers.
- In August 2009, she appeared on the cover of Pop magazine, which feature photographs by Jamie Morgan and was designed by artist Damien Hirst.
- Since then, Tavi has been featured in the View section of the December/January 2010 issue of Teen Vogue magazine and February 2010 issue of the French Vogue.
- Bloggers like Tavi have been referred to as the "frontline of fashion".
- She has also become a regular guest at fashion shows and a muse for designers in Tokyo.
- She is also partly inspiration for Rodarte's line at Target.
- Most recently, Gevinson was named a "Vogueista" by Vogue Italia with friend, Kristin Prim.
Exacitudes
- Ari Versluis (photographer) and Ellie Uyttenbrock (stylist)
Neighbours Rotterdam 2008
- Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994.
- Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 16 years.
- Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek
- They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude.
- By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity.
- The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.
- The end of the illusion of individuality? Doc project, scientific in nature
