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 Allure. 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.
Photography
was developed in the 1830s, but the
earliest popular technique, the
daguerreotype, was unsuitable for mass
printing. In 1856, Adolphe Braun published
a book containing 288 photographs of
Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione,
a Tuscan noblewoman at the court of Napoleon
III. The photos depict her in her official
court garb, making her the first fashion
model.
In
the first decade of the 20th century,
advances in halftone printing allowed
fashion photographs to be featured
in magazines. Fashion photography
made its
first appearance in French magazines
such as La mode practique. In 1909,
Condé Nast
took over Vogue magazine and also contributed
to the beginnings of fashion photography.
Special emphasis was placed on staging
the shots, a process first developed
by Baron Adolf de Meyer, who shot his
models in natural environments and
poses. Vogue was followed by
its rival, Harper's
Bazaar, and the two companies were
leaders in the field of fashion
photography throughout
the 1920s and 1930s. House photographers
such as Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene,
Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton transformed
the genre into an outstanding art form.
Europe, and especially Germany, was
for a short time the leader in
fashion photography.
But
now with that change in time every
country has taken considerable
measures
to promote the field of photography.
In the mid 1940s as World War II
approached the focus shifted to the
United States,
where Vogue and Harper's continued
their old rivalry. House photographers
such
as Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi,
Richard Avedon, and Louise Dahl-Wolfe
would
shape the look of fashion photography
for the
following decades. Richard Avedon
revolutionized fashion photography — and redefined
the role of the fashion photographer — in
the post-World War II era with his imaginative
images of the modern woman. Today, his
work is being exhibited in the Norton
Museum in West Palm Beach, FL. This exhibition
features more than 200 works and spans
Avedon’s entire career, including
vintage prints, contact sheets, and original
magazines from Harper’s Bazaar,
Vogue and The New Yorker.
The
artists abandoned their rigid forms
for a much freer style. In
1936 Martin
Munkacsi made the first photographs
of models in sporty poses at the
beach. Under the artistic direction
of Alexander
Brodovich, the Harper's Bazaar
quickly introduced this new style
into its
magazine.
In postwar London, John French
pioneered a new form of fashion
photography
suited to reproduction in newsprint,
involving
where possible reflected natural
light and low contrast.
After
the deaths of Richard Avedon, Helmut
Newton and Herb Ritts,
some of today's
most famous fashion photographers
are Patrick Demarchelier, Steven
Meisel,
Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh
and Annie Leibovitz.
|