Lecture 11 Fashion as Photography

Lecture 11- Fashion as Photography

Fashion Photography 

• Celebrities of the era were chosen to be photographed.
• Virginia Oldini, the Countess of Castiglione. One of the first fashion models.
• Showing women's legs in photo's was pushing the boundaries.

Fashion Magazines

• Came about with improvements in printing.
• Vogue vs Harpers Bazaar - leaders in fashion photography during 20's and 30's.
• ID Magazine vs The Face - leaders during 1990's.

Fashion Blogging

• Democratises fashion photography.
• Anyone can write about and photograph fashion.
• Now looking to ordinary people to influence fashion.

Photographers and Designers

• Paul Poiret (1879-1944) - garments with the freedom from corsetry.
• Horst P Horst - around in the 30's and 40's, responds to Salvador Dali, reflects his interests in surrealism.
• Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) - 'bright young things', photographed british royals, involved in set design and film.
• Jamel Shabazz - 1980's, photographing fashion on the streets, hip hop.
• Nick Knight - photoshop integral part of his work, links clothing and bodies with architecture and mechanics.
• Louise Dahl Wolfe - introduces environmental fashion photography, visual contrast between figures, early adopter of colour film.
• Lee Miller (1907-1977) - she was a photographer and model at 19, taught herself, active in surrealist movement.
• David Bailey - brought fashion, music and photography, pop culture, it was highly accessible.
• Richard Avedon (1923-2004) - environmental and theatre, pioneer for the 'in-between movement', crosses into art documentary.

• Jeurgen Teller (1964 - ) - works with musicians, their life as well as fashion.
• Terry Richardson - on the body he was highly controversial
• Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbrock - reproduce catalogue style, fine art product.

According to Wikipedia 

Fashion photography has been in existence since 1839. There was always the existence of fashionable dress, but the idea of taking photographs to help sell clothing and accessories had just come into play. 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.

Fashion Photography has been in existence since 1839. There was always the existence of fashionable dress, but the idea of taking photographs to help sell clothing and accessories had just come into play. The invention of the halftone printing process is what really helped fashion photography. The purpose of fashion photography was at one point to sell clothes. Today fashion photography has a story or a mood behind the picture