Fashion photography is a genre of photography that is dedicated to showing clothing in a postitve way. It originated in 1856 when Adolphe Braun published 288 photographs of Countess Virginia Oldoini making her the very first fashion model.
A notable fashion photographer is Mario Testino, who has shot fashion stories for Vogue, worked with a variety of celebrities including Kate Moss and Princess Diana and has had his work exhibited around the world.
Another notable fashion photographer is Patrick Demarchelier. Demarchelier has worked with Vogue and has shot international advertising campaigns, for many prestigious clients such as Calvin Klein, Chanel, Lacoste and many more. Through his work, Demarchelier has become a driving force behind the fashion industry.
A photo of Anna Maria Jagodzinska taken by Demarchelier. Note how unlike Testino's picture of Kate Moss, this picture is distinctly lacking in colour in order to emphasize the subject's features. The jacket takes up the majority of the picture but the viewer's attention is also drawn to Jagodzinska's eyes as they are half closed with a lascivious look, seemingly beckoning the viewer to her. The raised leg is an obvious form of body language for seduction. Seduction in a picture is commonly used as a marketing tool in fashion photography as sex inevitably sales.
Since it's beginnings fashion photography has been used for commerical purposes for the most part. Possibly the single biggest example of this is Vogue. Vogue is a fashion magazine that is published internationally (although each of the 18 countries it is published in publishes different articles), it is renowned for being the ultimate guide for the most current fashions and sales are regularly very high per month. For example, during the first half of 2008 the average monthly circulation figure was 221,090. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/12/cheryl-cole-helps-lift-vogue-sales
Although fashion photography is primarily for displaying clothes and selling them, it also serves as a form of expression.
Sacha Dean Biyan is an example of such a photographer, he combines fashion photography with music and sees his work as a look into his soul.
With such a massive audience, fashion photography is very influential to the masses. Celebrities are enshrined by fashion (Vogue for example, constantly has articles on celebrities) and portrayed as living the "high life", they often look impecable and we are told that they look sexy, chic, beautiful, handsome, etc. We as consumers readily take these subjective perspectives as facts and this is evidenced by just how popular fashion is. It seems that fashion takes no prisioners, as models are generally very slim, toned or muscular. While this is fine for those with model like bodies, what about those who do not fit the physical aesthetic of a model? For a long time the world of fashion has ignored the "everyday" man and women and has communicated without words that you must be of a certain shape and size to be good looking. In some cases this has had a very negative effect on consumers and models alike, as some people have become anorexic in order to maintain the size suitable for a model or to look as "good" as they do. Those are of course extreme cases but nevertheless it can be argued that it is directly caused by fashion. While I personally think that the fashion industry should do more to emphasize that there is no perfect body and that such a term is purely subjective, it would be bad for business and that's essentially what fashion is. Like any good business fashion has moved with the times and consumer tastes, from the fuller figured models from the 50's and earlier (and to an extent the 60's) to the almost painfully thin models of the 90's and 00's. This has changed at least a little with some designers setting minimum weight and BMI requirements for models and various campaigns putting "plus size" models in a positive light. An important campaign to me in the accurate portrayal of models has been Girlguiding UK against airbrushing: "Girlguiding UK calls upon the Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce compulsory labelling to distinguish between airbrushed and natural images to help combat the rise of eating disorders and shape a generation of self-confident girls and young women." According to the Girl's Attitudes Survey in 2009 50 per cent of 16- to 21-year-old girls would consider having surgery to change the way they look and 42 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds admitting to watching what they ate or cutting down on certain foods to excess. (http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/system_pages/small_navigation/latest_news/girlguiding_uk_against_airbr-1.aspx). I feel that this campaign is important as Guides are between 11 - 26, there are approximately 600,000 Girl Guides in the UK and young girls and women are particularly targeted by fashion.
As influential as fashion photography is (or indeed any form of media), this blog would lack objectivity if I were to not acknowledge another perspective of the consumer. While we are constantly bombarded with images of what "good" fashion and a "good" body is, we are the ones making the decisions to purchase the products. We have the power to pick apart an advertising campaign and see the deeper meaning and we have the capacity to become more media savvy and make informed decisions about what we buy.
Although the world of fashion is employs a certain amount of psychology (more on that later) it is still very superficial and very subjective. The best person to illustrate my point is Editor in Chief of Vogue US, Anna Wintour. As far as fashion goes what she says goes (or stays!) and becomes the next big thing. Her views alone have a massive impact on fashion. I would rather go with what I like in terms of clothing, whether it's fashionable or not.
I personally enjoy fashion but only to a degree and not to the point where it is a significant aspect of my life. I do not need a model or celebrity who looks as though they're having the time of their life to tell me what to wear either directly or indirectly. While I do respect the amount of effort that goes into fashion photography, I feel that to some extent it is a pseudo-art, as it is extremely pretentious (which is inevitable given the human association with clothes and how they have gone beyond their original function of solely providing warmth and protection), damages individuality as we are all catergorised into various audiences for fashion, emphasises outer beauty while ignoring inner beauty and exists almost solely for capitialist reasons.
Context
*Where do you see FP? TV, magazines, billboards, cinema, displays in shops. What do they have in common? All in places where they'll be the centre of our attention, so we'll absorb the consumer stuff we're supposed to. Wonderful. **Vast amounts of money is spent on advertsing so that FP gets maximum exposure** Good sentence I think... Perhaps expand on it? Any other examples on where you see FP? I think I have enough to talk about here but you never know...*
Technique
*FP relies heavily on semiotics (worth defining for better marks?), stereotypes/pre conceptions (which sounds better out of the two?). Links into psychology but keep it relevant and no tangents! Sex appeals to a primal instinct so it sales. Subconsciously (or consciously) think we'll look more attractive. More basic stuff... airbrushing, studios, models (have to be a particular size etc, some designers have said that clothes hang better on thinner models. Maybe use that to show insight into the process behind the technique?) Models always seem to have attitude in pics to portray confidence and power (portrayed by power poses [lol, what a phrase it's so cheesy!] describe one or two), which is no doubt another conscious/subconscious thing that goes through consumer minds to make them buy. Of course emphasis can be mostly on the clothes with little attention on the face depending on the pic. Sometimes it's just the celebrity that sells the product as they wear it... Skeleton made, just need to apply the meat!*
