Top ten fashion photographers

YEUX DE BICHE 3/3 (2023)Photography by Bettina Dupont.

Fashion photography: tale for the lazy

This article is dedicated to all those who want to know about photography but are too lazy to commit to study. This article is made for all those who are bored of reading Wikipedia, because beyond the list of dates or a rather cold interpretation, they urgently need to be stimulated, entertained and accompanied in learning. This article will tell you, trying to be less boring and challenging, about the history of fashion photography, a subject that will be followed by the presentation of the ten best artists in the field. Before leaving with purpose number one, I will tell you what fashion photography is, trying not to resort to overly demanding definitions, but to eviscerate the subject in order to make it affordable for everyone. So making it simple simple: do you know the oldest pictorial art? Well in this, for example, there is the genre of landscape, which collects all paintings showing naturalistic views. Consequently, if I talk about fashion photography, I mean all those images that capture clothing and accessories of the clothing, which may be more or less worn by models and models, caught outdoors or indoors. Up to this point we can consider that photography and painting are similar, although, in the former case, it is important to point out how such artistic production was linked, especially at its inception, to the images disseminated by fashion magazines (think of the iconic La mode practique, Harper Bazar and Vogue), a context from which it has gradually also detached itself, as some of its best-known exponents have managed to elevate it to an art form, existing even outside the purely commercial world. I have come to this point escaping from the style of Wikipedia, that is, without referring to a compulsive succession of dates, although at this point, at least to orient my narrative in a historical period, I would like to point out how the photography-magazine relationship took hold in the 19th century, while the artistic interpretation of the same is to be placed roughly during the 1930s, through the work of great masters of the genre, such as Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi, Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolfe. In any case, it is worth highlighting how the latter would not have achieved the visibility necessary to impose their views if, during the 20th century, fashion photography had not gradually acquired a new status, given to it by the public's increased interest in fashion shows, designers, and models. Now that the history of photography has been simplified, that is, reduced to its bare minimum, so that you can perhaps remember it once and for all, let us turn to the presentation of the ten photographers...

'ROSÉ' (2021)Photography by Dasha & Mari.

Top ten fashion photographers

Adolf de Meyer, via Wikipedia.

1. Baron Adolf de Meyer

The narrative continues in the individual introductions of the photographers, who will be investigated for their style, as I strongly wanted to try to avoid mechanically rehashing the stages of their existence, just as my now arch enemy (just kidding) Wikipedia does. Starting with Baron Adolf de Meyer, the Frenchman born in 1868 is known to have been the first photographer of Vogue, distinguishing himself by the use of a defective lens, which gave his images an unforgettable semblance of blurriness.  In addition to this peculiarity, what distinguished Adolf de Meyer's work was the fact that he ceased to systematically portray high society ladies, elegant passers-by, models, etc., in order to set himself the goal of interpreting the immortalized subject, who, an exponent of a style, became a kind of collaborator of the photographer, ready to move in tune with it, in order to be authentically discovered. The results were, for the time in question, unprecedented photographs ready to render not only the clothes but also the moods of the models, feelings that transformed the genre for the first time into a kind of communicative mode, capable of revealing not only what we are, but also how we would like to appear.

The Pond—Moonlight (1904) by Edward Steichen

2. Edward Steichen

Edward Jean Steichen (1879-1973), a Luxembourgian-born American photographer, painter and curator, is known to have been, along with the aforementioned Adolph de Meyer, a pioneer of the genre in question, to which he bestowed an artistic approach, as well as a somewhat pictorialist style, in which a soft focus took shape, accompanied by aesthetic retouching, ready to distinguish itself from the mechanical, sharp images made by his commercial colleagues of the time. All this could not be without a deft touch of imagination, flair and a desire to experiment, just as emerges in the photograph, published in the February 1928 issue of Vanity Fair, in which Steichen captured Gloria Swanson placing a piece of black lace veil over her face. In this last idea the woman recognized herself to such an extent that she dilated her gaze imitating that of a leopardess, ready to attack from behind a bush, as she watches, foretasting, her prey. Here precisely the foregoing description shows how fashion photography, with Edward Jean Steichen, eschewed its sterile repetitiveness, seeking in the models an orginal interpretation of the dress or accesory in question, and thus recreating that ancient relationship, which for centuries, has linked the painter's flair to the acting ability of his favorite model.

Lee Miller during World War II, via Wikipedia.

3. Lee Miller

Lee Miller (1907- 1977), before she was a photographer, was a model, both for her father and for some relevant photographers of her time, such as Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Arnold Genthe, who captured her for Vogue before 1929, when Miller decided to switch to the other side of the lens, to also collaborate with the great Man Ray. Turning quickly to her point of view, we can get an idea of the latter by describing the glamorous shot with which the photographer captured, in 1933, actress Lilian Harvey, intent on wearing an elegant and eye-catching satin and sequined evening gown, enhanced by a partly reclining posture in which the model finds balance on her left arm. What makes it somewhat peculiar, however, is the photographic process of solarization, by which, by deliberately overexposing the film during development, the images turn out partially negative. This technique transformed the dress and the figure at the same time, blurring, both the hand, the definition of the dress sleeve and the background space. All this is followed by the presence of strong color contrasts, which take shape in the above-mentioned lying body, which gradually appears more and more flattened and insubstantial, so that the subject, with a knowing smile, seems to dissolve, progressively, in space.

4. Helmut Newton

Elsa Peretti in a Halston Bunny Costume, New York (1975): this is the shot with which I want to present the work of Helmut Newton (1920-2004), who, in this specific case, captured Peretti, model, and later jewelry designer, caught posing for French Vogue, while dressed in a bunny costume on the roof of her New York apartment. It all takes shape against the backdrop of the aforementioned metropolis, a place where typical atmospheres of the night are revealed in daylight, probably alluding to a form of revealed voyeurism. Certainly what has just been described was inspired by the photographer's Palyboy experience, which consequently decided to freely explore female eroticism and sexuality, dimensions ready, innovatively, to enter the genre of fashion photography. At the time, such an approach by the color-blind photographer was in fact perceived as highly sensual, sometimes sadomasochistic, stylized, or even fetishistic. Despite the extremism of some evaluations, certain is the fact that the artist wanted to portray women in a new light, placing emphasis on a dominant nature, captured through odd angles, dramatic lighting, and skillfully curated and composed erotic poses, ready to give rise to strong and provocative visions.

5. Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon, born in 1923, was an American photographer and portrait artist, extremely famous for his countless black-and-white portraits, which stood out in various genres, including that of reportage and fashion, where, for example, the impact of shots such as Dovima with elephants, Dior evening gown, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris (1955) remains immortal. The latter photograph reveals the master's style, presenting itself as a play of contrasts, contrasting the pale skin of the model with her ribbon and the dark gray skin of the rough and wrinkled elephants, ready to speak of the passing of time, to which the young woman seems to have nothing to fear, assuming a strong, if somewhat angular pose. Opposites once again attract in the lines, as the woman's rigor seems to stand out from the instinctive but heavy animal curves. Although the shot in question marked the master's rise in the field of fashion photography, he remembers it with a kind of regret: "I still look at that photo today and I don't know why I didn't have the band on the left pop out to complete the line of the image. For me the photo will always be a failure because that sash is not there."

6. Ellen von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth is a German photographer born in 1954, who began her career as a model before becoming an icon of fashion and advertising photography, specializing in the female subject, which she interprets by referring to the example drawn from the work of Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. The theme mainly addressed by the artist lies in the enhancement of the power of the female gaze, as well as its ability to exploit eroticism, which, sometimes perceived in a provocative manner, alludes to the emancipation of the fairer sex, narrating it through the evocation of a glamorous point of view, aimed at presenting visual elements that are both calm and strong. Such narrative takes shape, both in black and white and in color, within classic and timeless compositions as well as dynamic and playful shots. Regarding the latter aspect, his work is known to present a playful approach, aimed at putting the models at ease, encouraging positive and somewhat spontaneous attitudes, which lead photographer and subject to explore together the themes of fetishism, sexuality and femininity, while also trying to reveal the personality of the effigy.

7. Tim Walker

Timothy Walker is a British fashion photographer born in 1970, who, regularly expressing himself for magazines such as Vogue, W and Love, makes explicit a point of view certainly ready to attract the attention of all those who refuse to grow up, hoping to see realized the dreams that came to life in their favorite fairy tales. In fact, Walker's shots, through the use of mainly soft colours, are characterized by giving free rein to a childish imagination, ready to take on the appearance of enchanted and, at the same time, delicate stories, which lead the observer to move away from the rigid mental patterns of the adult world. It almost seems that the artist has made him the quote by Irving Penn: "Fashion photography is about selling dreams and not clothes", to bring everyday life closer to magic in a surreal, but quite credible way. This enchantment, however, is not the result of the digital manipulation that the photographer eschews, so much so that what appears in the shot was authentically composed on the set, exclusively in life size. It follows that the spectator feels like "once upon a time", that is, capable of experiencing those forgotten sensations, ready to make him wear the wings of fantasy again...

8. Roxanne Lowit

Roxanne Elizabeth Lowit (1942-2022) was an American fashion and celebrity photographer, whose main desire was not to miss any detail, to fix it in images, aimed at giving a face to an era, stopping it in moments eternal. Her vision presents a specific peculiarity, which is that of allowing the observer to enter the private, intimate and personal sphere of the subjects depicted, also accessing the and coveted backstage of the world of fashion. In her figurative research two components in particular merge, such as hedonism and glamour, often also expressed through a nocturnal point of view. The peculiarities of the world she captured, however, were only possible to grasp at the time in which she mainly practiced, as, referring to her own words, the photographer declared how: "Then there was definitely more playfulness. The models really had great personalities and great charm. Today I find that girls are all more or less the same... top models really have it all figured out."

9. David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is an American photographer and director born in 1963, who has been active in the fields of fashion, advertising and in a broader sense of art photography, expressing himself through a very personal Pop point of view, which took shape in the fusion of themes mainly erotic, glittery, sacred and mythological. These subjects find realization in photographs that appear to be paintings, aimed at giving shape to the artist's dreams, which certainly also refers to the teachings of Surrealism. Through this last aspect it was possible to make a language concrete, in which spirituality and provocation merge, within a mix that seems to incorporate fairy tales and kitsh, but also the example of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Dalì and by Koons, which is rendered through the use of translucent colors and glossy images rich in both playfulness and blasphemy. In the same way, the reference to the cult of celebrities, to consumerism and its consequent expressive voracity is made explicit, without forgetting how LaChapelle declared that he had a particular admiration for masters of the caliber of Andrea Pozzo and Caravaggio, also considering that his work is was probably influenced by the work of Salvador Dalí, Jeff Koons, Michelangelo, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol.

10. Annie Leibovitz

Untitled (2017): shot of Leibovitz who partly explains her point of view expressed within fashion photography, rendered, in this particular case, by the cover of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue, in which eleven stars pose wearing designer clothes, which feature coordinated colors, while standing out against the backdrop of a film studio. The subjects of the composition are arranged, either standing, sitting or lying down, appearing united only by the fact that each of them turns his gaze to the lens, presenting an impassive expression. The cover appears to be decidedly glamorous and elegant, even if, appearing every year with different protagonists, according to Oscar custom, it is also somewhat ephemeral and interchangeable. However, it is this type of celebrity group portrait that has helped make the photographer famous, known for her ability to generate visual interest thanks to her clever arrangement of subjects, as well as that of lights and props. Everything is the result of great reflection and planning, which ideally opposes the superficiality of the cult of famous people, although it is also through this lightness that it is possible to know the cultural moment in which a shot took shape...