Wednesday, 9 January 2013

OUGD401 - Lecture Notes: Fashion as Photograph

Fashion as Photograph

(The body of fashion photography)

The relationship between photographer, model and product. How that power relationship of representation reflects on photography.

Ghost mannequin - The body becomes invisible

First permanent photographs - Made my Nicephore Niepce in France
An image captured on a basic camera
One of the first permanent images

Louis Daguerre, Boulevard de Temple, 1838/9
Chemical based photography
Street view
A man having his boots cleaned in the street - Long exposure time there is no traffic recorded on the street
First photograph of a person

William Henry Fox Talbot
Invented a fixing process
Calotype - process using silver nitrate (as in black and white negative used in chemical processing today)
UK in 1840, referred to as "the second invention of...

Lady Alice Mary Kerr's Portrait of WIlfrid Scawen Blunt, 1870

Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione, photographed by Adolphe Braun, 1956
The idea of photographing people and fashion is there immediately
She is the model and director in the action and in the relationship
She sets up these almost theatrical scenes acting out parts
There is a vast amount of pictures taken of her
Sexual overtone to it in a way that there are lots of masks used
Acting out her own political history

Photographed by Pierson 1861-1867
Pushing boundaries of what was sexually acceptable at the time
Ankle view

Age of the fashion magazine
Improvements in printing process means that photographs can be reproduced in magazines
First ten years of the 1900's

Paul Poiret (1879-1944)
House of Worth (Charles Worth, father of haute couture)
Freedom from corsetry
Signature shapes - hobble skirt, harem pants
Clothing cut along straight lines
Influences by antique dress

Edward Steichen photographs Paul Poirets designs for Art et Decoration, 1911
Collaboration between designer and photographer
Pictoral photographer
Work featured in art magazine
Featured the style of the day
Soft grainy rendering to make it look like brush work
 
Adolf de Meyer, 1920's
Still got things coming through characteristic of pictorial approach
Woman posing in whistful romantic way
Staring in thought
Almost seems to be acting out a character
Natural theme

Martin Munkacsi, early to mid 1930's
People are testing out technical capacities
Things like film speed
Photographing a model in a very active pose
Fashion photograph
Element of blur involved
A sense of sport image
He was a news and sports photographer
Looking after the body

Edward Steichen in high fashion

Switches from the pictorialist style to a style that also encapsulates modernism
A real concerntration of the use of abstract shapes
Becomes a triangle
Careful use of light in this image
Exposure of the print and fine detail is using the camera for its own qualities
Things to don't get in other mediums
Ability of the camera to have everything sharp
Photographers want to work with people who are celebrities of the day

La Mode Pratique, 1938
Fashion magazine cover
A lot of Vogue covers were still drawn

Vogue vs Harpers Bazaar
Leaders in fashion photography in the 1920's and 30's
Hounngen-Huene for HB (photographs for Madame Vionnet)

Hoyningen-Heune, 1931 Madame Vionnet
Draping of the dress follows the shape of the body
Angel like feel to the image where the model is given a mythical status
Represents mythical beauty
Look at fashion images as something which is unreachable to the ordinary person

Horst P Horst Costume for Salvador Dali's "Dream of Venus" 1939
Some of it is underwater
Surrealism
Semi-naked figures floating around
Reflects the interest that surrealists have in dream life
Reflect fantasy and reality
Costume is an erotic fantasy

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980)
Reflects social status
People who have that unattainable lifestyle
British Vogue and Vanity Fair
Photographed and was a member of the 'Bright young things'
Diarist

Vivien Leigh for Vogue, mid 1930's
Designs sets
Working with the most prominent actresses at the time
He has placed her in the backstage scenery
Styled the photograph in the wings
Get the impression of the star not in the limelight
He reminds us that by showing us the edges of the screen that this is a glimpse into a glamorous world that we may not have access to otherwise
Spotlighting that throws the shadow on the backdrop
Dramatic scene where she is acting a part

Stephen Tennant by Cecil Beaton
Spent most of his life in bed
Very bohemian characters that Beaton is friends with

Queen Elizabeth II in 1968
Royal photographer
Commisioned to photographed the queen
Uses an approach of an environmental portrait
White room photographed in is a reflection of her status
Opulent setting
Making the royals into a glamorous set at the time
Lifestyle and wealth that comes with fashion

Lee Miller (1907-1977)
Photographed by Steichen
American photographer and fashion model at age 19
Set in a studio set to look like an opulent living room
Model at a young age then takes up photographer
Socialises with avant-garde artists of the day
Often photographed by Man Ray
Involved in the surrealist movement in photography
She also photographed harsh documentary (war)

Louise Dahl Wolfe
From 1936 to 1958 she was a staff fashion photographer at Harper's Bazaar
Married to a sculptor
Night bathing, 1939 - taken the model outside at nighttime with this lighting that illuminates her body and the status in the foreground
Comparison between still life and live model
Doubling up
Reference to a classical figure

Panorama of Paris, Suzy Parker in Jacques Fath Gown, 1953
Supermodel of the time
Contrast between foreground and background
Use of exotic location starts to filter into fashion photography

1940's and 50's
Colour photography

William Klein, 1950's
Move towards bringing documentary style into fashion photography
He is a documentary photographer known for use of movement and blur
As a street photographer he is very much in the crowd
Very carefully designed
He translates this into his fashion photography
Informality playing with real life

Brian Duffy Jean Shrimpton on the Edgeware Road, 1960
Encapsulates liberation of the female who has a part time job

Helmut Newton (1920-2004)
Well known photographer for the nude
The power body
On display for our pleasure
Inclusion of his wife is his way of answering back the criticisms that have been made about his work

Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan shoes
Reducing the body just to the part which is important
Leg and shoe
Surrealism
Controversial character

Jamel Shabazz, Back in the days, published 2002
Collection of photographs of the hip hop scene of New York city
published retrospectively
He is also part of this culture
He lives in this area
Street fashion at the time

ID magazine vs The Face
reflect fashion, culture, music

Juergen Teller (1964)
German photographer
Photos in The Face, Vogue
Has worked with Vivienne Westwood and Marc Jacobs
Works with musicians
Annie Morton, 1996

Corrine Day (1965-2010)
Model and photographer
Photographed Kate Moss

Adobe Photoshop
2003
Graphics editing program
Digital image

Terry Richardson
Book Terryworld published 2004
US photographer
Has worked for Vogue, Vanity Fair, ID magazine, Harpers Bazaar
Sisley, Diesel, Mango, H&M

Nick Knight
UK photographer
Futuristic
Shots for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Another Magazine
Worked with Yohji Yammamoto in the 90's and with Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior

Fashion Blogging
Democratises fashion photography
Anyone can write about fashion
Tavi Gevinsons "Style Rookie"
She creates her own celebrity
People have access to glamorous world

Streetstyle Copenhagen
Photographing people in the street
Asking people about their fashion interests

Poppy Dinsey, 2011
Photographs herself in her outfit everyday and posts in on her blog
wiwt.com - What I Wore Today
More about the document of the personal side of fashion

Company
Whole issue dedicated to 20 or more fashion bloggers
Celebrate 'real' and 'street' fashion

Exacitudes - Ari Versluis (photographer) and Ellie Uyttenbrock (stylist)
Exact and attitudes mixed
Document global fashion
Neighbours, Rotterdam 2008 and Casettes gang, London 2008
Telling us that individuality is almost not possible in a fashion world
We just align ourselves to a type of fashion group







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