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This is an essay on The History of Fashion Photography, written by Kelly Nicola Marie Johnson Every inspirational image that has been captured by the camera comes from the photographer, model and the look being in perfect harmony. A good fashion image becomes great from the model's performance in front of the camera. “There is a contradiction in fashion photography: In theory, its purpose the same as that of a catalogue: to depict the clothes and help to sell them. In practice however, fashion photography has been used as a vehicle for self-expression by some of the world's greatest photographers photographers.” .” -- O’Rourke (2005) The history of fashion imagery can be traced back to the 18th century where images of clothes were printed on magazines and then hand coloured in Paris before being shipped to England for distribution. Photography was later developed in the 1830s; however the art of fashion photography became apparent much later. The daguerreotype, the earliest photographic technique, could not be used for mass printing as it was too slow. It was not however until further developments in half-tone printing; that fashion photographs could be featured in magazines; all this was within the first decade of the 20th century. In 1902 a photographer by the name of Alfred Stieglitz found an elite group of artistic photographers; photographers; Käsebier, Clarence White, and Edward Steichen
who broke away from the pictorialist’s movement and started the Photo-Secession from a studio in New York. The Photo-Secession was devoted to showing photography as an artistic medium alongside painting and sculpture. This helped Stieglitz to publish ‘Camera Work 1903-1917` this led him to become the leading voice of a new and modern aesthetic within photography. This new and modern aesthetic aesthetic embraced urban and industrial subjects with abstract composition, and unsentimental approach, which would dominate the practice and criticism of photography in the 20th century. Fashion photography developed along side the new range of picture magazines, which once limited all the prints to be studio portraits of society women in their finery; started to contain images of professional models taken by professional photographers to liven up images and entice the reader. One photographer from this elite group, Baron de Meyer made a lasting effect with his masterful lighting skills; his trick was to use as many lights on the subject from all angles, he also knew how to use the setting behind the subjects to create a Romantic style with the use of drapes, curtains and lamps. His biggest accomplishment was his work he did with Vogue in 1914 when Conde Nast hired him. hi m. Another one of the inspirational photographers from this thi s group was Edward 1
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Steichen; he also worked with Vogue as one of the highest paid photographers of the 1930s, even through the economic depression, as there was a high demand for photography to succeed in manufacturing consumer desire through advertising. Steichen closed the New York studio in 1938 to embark on a new more spontaneous photographic phase. Inspired by de Meyer and Steichen, Cecil Beaton had an extraordinary break into the world of fashion photography, during his first photographic exhibition in 1927, in the Cooling gallery in London; Cecil Beaton was offered a contract with Vogue magazine. However in the 1930s Beaton’s focus was on Hollywood’s film stars, creating a somewhat surreal ambiance of unused stage sets and using elaborated studio props, this seemed to change Beaton’s attitude towards the romanticism and indulgence of his earlier work. A dramatic result to this change led to the early termination of his contract with Vogue in 1938. It was in 1937 that Beaton was appointed court photographer to the royal family and Beaton still remained as a fashion photographer until the mid-fifties. During the Second World War; fashion photography seemed to be put on the back shelf with the main photography work focusing on the coverage of the war and the impact it had on life around the world; with such photographers as W. Eugene Smith the magazine Life star photojournalist; capturing the war from the Pacific, Robert Capa dramatically capturing the D-Day landings and Cecil Beaton working as a war correspondent for the British Ministry of Information. In 1944 a philosophy student from Columbia University, New York created a great deal of attention whilst working alongside the legendary art director for Harper’s Bazaar Alexey Brodovitch. Richard Avedon, the creator of the “New Vision”, achieved extensive publicity with his fashion photography, in which his visions were expressed in lively and lifelike manner. His models of the of the fifties were asked: to breathe life into the fashion image. The way he inspired the girls to create characters in front of his lens gave life to the 1956 film Funny Face. The fifties photographic shoot was a very different proposition to the present day: “ All All the models are defined by the hair people and the make-up people today , (in the fifties) you would bring your own makeup, as I did; a few hair pieces, your own shoes, your own jewellery...” (Dell'Orefice, 1998). In the fifties the focus of fashion photography was closely aimed at the model and what name she was wearing rather than the the photographer. The birth of the supermodel arose and each decade from the fifties to the nineties, a new face of fashion photography emerged and have they have all earned their place in fashion photography history along side their photographers Dorian Leigh, Jean Shrimpton, Jerry Hall, Christy Turlington and Kate Moss. 2
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The fifties was also introduced to a subtext of sex and flirtation among fashion imagery, it was Avedon that said, “You cant fuck and photograph at the same time,” Sherwood Sherwood (1998) when asked asked about about the sexual tension between photographer and model in the fifties. The sixties saw the move of the fashion and the photography industry, from Paris to London with the opening of new boutique cultures targeting the youth of the swinging sixties. It also saw the beginning of fashion's obsession with youth and photographers such as David Bailey and Terence Donovan, adding just a little element of sex in necessary shots to attract a younger audience. There was a big change in fashion during the sixties with gamine model being the first to conquer the catwalk and clothes being designed and made to fit the adolescent body. Young girls and photographers from the sixties were exposed a lot more than their predecessors, due to the media's hunger for a scandal and the sixties fashion industry love affair with drugs. The womanising fashion photographer became an icon during the sixties. Fashion was on the move again in the seventies, and Studio 54 was at the height of that move, New York was the centre of the fashion universe. All the major designers and photographers of the decade went to Studio 54 as it was the height of glamour. The fashion and photography world was turning more exotic and dangerous, to reflect this decadent era a more erotic eroti c type of model emerged, “The glamorised representation of fashion was fuelled by cocaine, sex and disco, did nothing to deter the models.” (Sherwood 1998) Towards the end of the seventies the images seemed to capture the madness, darkness and unhappiness of the time. The eighties fashion imagery was in devastation with AIDS and addiction from the seventies, with a number of photographers, designers and models contracting contracting the disease, so a more healthy and body conscious imagery put in motion, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan designed a new range of of sportswear to entice the consumer to keep fit. This was the era of body fascism, with only the classic all-American blue eyed blondes surviving. Bruce Webber and Herb Ritts emerged in the early eighties with a new school of fashion photography. They Studied fitness, by centring their focus on tanned and sculpted male and female bodies as well as opting for the aesthetics of outdoor shoots instead of using studios. Grunge opened a new door to fashion in 1994, the glamorisation of the supermodel was gone. Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd, dubbed by the press as 'superwaifs', made way for a new breed of supermodel, it was also an equally young generation of photographers such as Ellen von Unwerth and Corinne Day that helped the models carry off the image of confrontational and the anti-glamorous. The drug-related death of Kate Moss's boyfriend; David Sorrenti and the London street bible “the “the 3
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face” as face” as photographed by Corinne Day that led to her being the face of what the British Tabloids and President Clinton named the industry of fashion photography as “heroin chic”. The industry needed a change but still wanted to keep the fresh face of Kate Moss, it was the British editor of Harper's of Harper's Bazaar that Bazaar that created a more glamorous and healthy Kate Moss. With Moss's face on the cover and her contract with Calvin Klein, it opened the door to more quirky English girls such as Stella Tennant. In today's fashion photography, success for models, celebrities and advertising company's all depend upon being well liked by the masses. Their rise to popularity can influence society and change cultural tastes, but it is often the fashion photographer who moves behind the scenes to make it happen. Fashion Photography in the twenty first century is much more than the model, but more on fashion, clothing, cosmetics. The images today are emphasized shots, elaborated poses and exotic backdrops to peak the public's interest, increase sex appeal and sell their final fi nal product in magazines, televisions and even the internet. Today's art of eye-catching imagery has transformed fashion photography in to an outstanding art form.
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Kelly Johnson 09585132 Access to H.E Preparing a written assignment. Bibliography:
Badger, G. (2007) The The Genius Of Photography. Photography. London: Quadrille Quadrille Publishing Limited.
Langford, M. (1982) The Master Guide Guide to Photography. London: Random Random House.
O'Rourke, A. (2005) (2005) History of Fashion Fashion Photography. [Online]. Available Available from Http://www.aidan.co.uk/article_fashion1.htm [Accessed 2009, October 18].
Rosenblum, Rosenblum, N. (1984) A World History of Photography. Photography. New York: Cross River Press, Ltd.
Sherwood, J. (1998) David David Bailey, Models Close-Up. Close-Up. London: Macmillan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
(2008) History of Photography. [Online]. Available from Http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia Http://encarta.msn.com /encyclopedia_76157558 _761575589/History_of_Pho 9/History_of_Photography.ht tography.ht ml [Accessed 2009, October 18].
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