FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

Nicole Sangha

INTRODUCTION

Fashion photography is

mainly used for advertisements

or fashion magazines such as

Vogue. Clothes and fashion are

enhanced by the accessories they

are put together with, or the

location that they have been

taken in.

HISTORY OF FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fashion photography has been around for

years; in 1856 Adolphe Braun created a book

which contained 288 photographs of Virginia

Oldini who was a Tuscan women. She was a

noblewomen at court of Napoleon III. The

pictures were of her in her official court

clothes; this then made her the first fashion

model.

HISTORY OF FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

Due to the advance in

halftone printing, in the first

decade of the 20th century

fashion photographers were

featured in magazines. La mode

practique (French magazine) was

the first magazine fashion made

its first appearance in;

contributing to the appearance of

fashion, in 1909 Conde Nast took

over Vogue magazine which helped

to develop fashion photography.

In 1911 photographer Lucien Vogel, who

was the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La

Gazette du Bon Ton, “dared” Edward

Steichen to use photography to present

fashion as a fine art. Steichen then began to

take photos of gowns designed by

couturier Paul Poiret. The pictures were

then published in the April 1911 issue of

“Art et decoration”. This now considered to

be the first ever modern fashion

photography shoot according to Jesse

Alexander.

HISTORY OF FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s Vogue and its rival magazine

Harper’s Bazaar were leaders in the field of fashion photography. The

genre fashion was transformed into an outstanding art form by the

help of the house photographers, Edward Steichen, George

Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton.

HISTORY OF FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

Under the artistic direction of Alexey Brodovitch, in 1936 Martin

Munkacsi made the first photographs of models in sporty poses at

the beach. Harper’s Bazaar quickly then introduced this new style into

his magazine.

CONTEMPORARY FASHION

PHOTOGRAPHY

After the deaths of Richard Avedon, Helut Newton, Francesco

Scavullo and Herb Ritts, some of the most famous fashion

photographers today are, Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Mario

Testino, Peter Lindbergy and Annie Leibovitz.

STILL LIFE FASHION

Still life fashion is a type of fashion photography which consists of

taking photographs of clothes without models. This fashion has

become an important part of all fashion retailers marketing and e-

commerce strategies. Studios have been devoted to the production of

this particular photography. This photography has made up a large

proportion of the UK and Worldwide photography businesses.

RICHARD AVEDON’S

PHOTOGRAPHYHere we have an image in black and white of a

women looking up. The main feature of this

photograph are the white sunglasses that she is

wearing; to make them the main feature of the

photograph Avedon has purposely used white

oversized sunglasses to attract the audience. The

audience for this photograph would be people that

are into fashion as it is obvious that this photograph

would be featured in a fashion magazine. The lighting

in the photograph is coming from the top as it is

evident to us that it is hitting the top of her forehead;

we can also see the light reflecting off the front parts

of her hair.

RICHARD AVEDON’S

PHOTOGRAPHYThis photograph again is a black and white

photograph; like all of Avedon’s work this

photograph displays an element of fashion. The

women is using her arms to make a triangular

shape which makes the photograph very effective.

The fact that she is holding her hair up as she

does this emphasises the fact the purpose of this

photograph is for a fashion purpose as it draws

the audiences attention straight to the dress that

she is wearing. The light has been angled to hit of

the front of her face; we can see this as her arm is

covering one side of her face thus creating a

shadow.

DAVID BAILEY

Baily also adapts the idea of using the arms of the models to

create triangular shapes; the one on the top created two

triangles where as the one just creates one triangle. Both of

the images are in black and white however the bottom one has

a higher level of contrast than the top image; in the bottom

image the model is placed in front of a black background,

with the light hitting the front of her face, creating a hint of a

shadow. The top image using various shades of grey and there

is not one dominating dark shade of grey. Due to the models

wearing contemporary clothes and not really having normal

hairstyles I would say that the purpose of these images as for

a hair magazine of some form.

DAVID BAILEY

This is a close up photograph of Kate Moss;

again the triangular element has been adapted

in this image. She has been positioned more to

the right of the image leaving a little gap on the

left side where the background is visible. This is

a black and white image that uses various

shades and tones of grey. Due to her hair

covering one side of her face the audience are

automatically drawn to her eye, which can be

assumed to purposely be made dark with make

up for this reason. It gives the photograph a

sense of mystery. The lightness has of the

background has been increased in this image.

MARIO TESTINO

This photograph is a side on image which has

been taken in colour. Due to the red being so

dominating within this image we can assume that

either the hue and saturation has been increased,

or a red filter has been placed on top of the light

source. As we can see the light is hitting off her

cheekbones and forehead; this is where we would

expect the light to hit when the light source is

coming from behind her. We can also assume that

her make up has purposely been made lighter in

those areas for that reason. The purpose again for

this photograph could be for either a fashion

purpose or for the a magazine article on this

celebrity.

MARIO TESTINO

Both of these photographs use the models arms to create triangular shapes; in the bottom image we can also see that the models legs have also been used to form the triangular shape. Both of these images are in colour however one has been taken closer than the other one has. The top one we can see has been taken for a fashion purpose due to all the fashion accessories that have been used. We can assume that the light source is coming from slightly the right side of the model as a shadow of her face has been created against the white background. The bottom image uses subtle colours which give it a warming tone. The light source is coming from the front of the model and we can assume that a light reflector has been used for this image.

EDWARD STEICHEN

Both of these images take a different look on fashion photography.

Instead of focusing on the models face and what they are wearing

they are focusing on the accessories of the model. In the top image

we can see that the main focus is on the heels that the lady is wearing.

This image has been converted into black and white to give it that

olden day feeling to it. The fact that the women has been given a

black dress to wear against her pale completion has been done on

purpose, so the audience are automatically drawn to her shoes. Her

arm also acts as a leading like as it causes you to look at her shoes.

The bottom image is of a women’s hand; the main focus of this

image can be assumed to the bracelets that the women is wearing on

her arms. Again this image has been converted into black and white.

Due to the fact the women is messing round with something on the

table automatically draws the audience to her hands and the jewelry

on her arms. Her back hand is raised compare to the one at the front,

this has been done so that all the accessories can be seen.

CECIL BEATON

This is a black and white image which uses various different shades of grey that has been taken from a birds eye view. The models head has been tilted so that she is looking up to the camera on a side on view. The props have been put around to fill out the background; however, even though all the props are around her she is still the main focus of the image. The fact that her hands have been used to cover up the bit of skin that she has on show makes the main focus of the image the one side of her face, as the other one is hidden as her head is tilted.