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This is an essay on The History of Fashion Photography, written by

Kelly Nicola Marie Johnson

Every inspirational image that has been captured by the camera

comes from the photographer, model and the look being in perfect
harmony. A good fashion image becomes great from the model's
performance in front of the camera.

“There is a contradiction in fashion photography: In theory, its

purpose the same as that of a catalogue: to depict the clothes
and help to sell them. In practice however, fashion photography
has been used as a vehicle for self-expression by some of the
world's greatest photographers.” - O’Rourke (2005)

The history of fashion imagery can be traced back to the 18th century
where images of clothes were printed on magazines and then hand
coloured in Paris before being shipped to England for distribution.
Photography was later developed in the 1830s; however the art of
fashion photography became apparent much later. The daguerreotype,
the earliest photographic technique, could not be used for mass
printing as it was too slow. It was not however until further
developments in half-tone printing; that fashion photographs could be
featured in magazines; all this was within the first decade of the 20th
century.

In 1902 a photographer by the name of Alfred Stieglitz found an elite group of

artistic photographers; Käsebier, Clarence White, and Edward Steichen
who broke away from the pictorialist’s movement and started the
Photo-Secession from a studio in New York. The Photo-Secession was
devoted to showing photography as an artistic medium alongside
painting and sculpture. This helped Stieglitz to publish ‘Camera Work
1903-1917` this led him to become the leading voice of a new and
modern aesthetic within photography. This new and modern aesthetic
embraced urban and industrial subjects with abstract composition, and
unsentimental approach, which would dominate the practice and
criticism of photography in the 20th century. Fashion photography
developed along side the new range of picture magazines, which once
limited all the prints to be studio portraits of society women in their
finery; started to contain images of professional models taken by
professional photographers to liven up images and entice the reader.

One photographer from this elite group, Baron de Meyer made a

lasting effect with his masterful lighting skills; his trick was to use as
many lights on the subject from all angles, he also knew how to use
the setting behind the subjects to create a Romantic style with the use
of drapes, curtains and lamps. His biggest accomplishment was his
work he did with Vogue in 1914 when Conde Nast hired him. Another
one of the inspirational photographers from this group was Edward

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Steichen; he also worked with Vogue as one of the highest paid

photographers of the 1930s, even through the economic depression,
as there was a high demand for photography to succeed in
manufacturing consumer desire through advertising. Steichen closed
the New York studio in 1938 to embark on a new more spontaneous
photographic phase.

Inspired by de Meyer and Steichen, Cecil Beaton had an extraordinary

break into the world of fashion photography, during his first
photographic exhibition in 1927, in the Cooling gallery in London; Cecil
Beaton was offered a contract with Vogue magazine. However in the
1930s Beaton’s focus was on Hollywood’s film stars, creating a
somewhat surreal ambiance of unused stage sets and using
elaborated studio props, this seemed to change Beaton’s attitude
towards the romanticism and indulgence of his earlier work. A dramatic
result to this change led to the early termination of his contract with
Vogue in 1938. It was in 1937 that Beaton was appointed court
photographer to the royal family and Beaton still remained as a fashion
photographer until the mid-fifties.

During the Second World War; fashion photography seemed to be put

on the back shelf with the main photography work focusing on the
coverage of the war and the impact it had on life around the world; with
such photographers as W. Eugene Smith the magazine Life star
photojournalist; capturing the war from the Pacific, Robert Capa
dramatically capturing the D-Day landings and Cecil Beaton working as
a war correspondent for the British Ministry of Information.

In 1944 a philosophy student from Columbia University, New York

created a great deal of attention whilst working alongside the
legendary art director for Harper’s Bazaar Alexey Brodovitch. Richard
Avedon, the creator of the “New Vision”, achieved extensive publicity
with his fashion photography, in which his visions were expressed in
lively and lifelike manner. His models of the of the fifties were asked: to
breathe life into the fashion image. The way he inspired the girls to
create characters in front of his lens gave life to the 1956 film Funny
Face. The fifties photographic shoot was a very different proposition to
the present day: “All the models are defined by the hair people and the
make-up people today , (in the fifties) you would bring your own make-
up, as I did; a few hair pieces, your own shoes, your own jewellery...”
(Dell'Orefice, 1998).

In the fifties the focus of fashion photography was closely aimed at the
model and what name she was wearing rather than the the
photographer. The birth of the supermodel arose and each decade
from the fifties to the nineties, a new face of fashion photography
emerged and have they have all earned their place in fashion
photography history along side their photographers Dorian Leigh, Jean
Shrimpton, Jerry Hall, Christy Turlington and Kate Moss.

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The fifties was also introduced to a subtext of sex and flirtation among
fashion imagery, it was Avedon that said, “You cant fuck and
photograph at the same time,” Sherwood (1998) when asked about
the sexual tension between photographer and model in the fifties.

The sixties saw the move of the fashion and the photography industry,
from Paris to London with the opening of new boutique cultures
targeting the youth of the swinging sixties. It also saw the beginning of
fashion's obsession with youth and photographers such as David
Bailey and Terence Donovan, adding just a little element of sex in
necessary shots to attract a younger audience. There was a big
change in fashion during the sixties with gamine model being the first
to conquer the catwalk and clothes being designed and made to fit the
adolescent body. Young girls and photographers from the sixties were
exposed a lot more than their predecessors, due to the media's hunger
for a scandal and the sixties fashion industry love affair with drugs. The
womanising fashion photographer became an icon during the sixties.

Fashion was on the move again in the seventies, and Studio 54 was at
the height of that move, New York was the centre of the fashion
universe.
All the major designers and photographers of the decade went to
Studio 54 as it was the height of glamour. The fashion and
photography world was turning more exotic and dangerous, to reflect
this decadent era a more erotic type of model emerged, “The
glamorised representation of fashion was fuelled by cocaine, sex and
disco, did nothing to deter the models.” (Sherwood 1998) Towards the
end of the seventies the images seemed to capture the madness,
darkness and unhappiness of the time.

The eighties fashion imagery was in devastation with AIDS and

addiction from the seventies, with a number of photographers,
designers and models contracting the disease, so a more healthy and
body conscious imagery put in motion, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan
designed a new range of sportswear to entice the consumer to keep
fit. This was the era of body fascism, with only the classic all-American
blue eyed blondes surviving.
Bruce Webber and Herb Ritts emerged in the early eighties with a new
school of fashion photography. They Studied fitness, by centring their
focus on tanned and sculpted male and female bodies as well as
opting for the aesthetics of outdoor shoots instead of using studios.

Grunge opened a new door to fashion in 1994, the glamorisation of the

supermodel was gone. Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd, dubbed by the
press as 'superwaifs', made way for a new breed of supermodel, it was
also an equally young generation of photographers such as Ellen von
Unwerth and Corinne Day that helped the models carry off the image
of confrontational and the anti-glamorous. The drug-related death of
Kate Moss's boyfriend; David Sorrenti and the London street bible “the

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face” as photographed by Corinne Day that led to her being the face of
what the British Tabloids and President Clinton named the industry of
fashion photography as “heroin chic”. The industry needed a change
but still wanted to keep the fresh face of Kate Moss, it was the British
editor of Harper's Bazaar that created a more glamorous and healthy
Kate Moss. With Moss's face on the cover and her contract with Calvin
Klein, it opened the door to more quirky English girls such as Stella
Tennant.

In today's fashion photography, success for models, celebrities and

advertising company's all depend upon being well liked by the masses.
Their rise to popularity can influence society and change cultural
tastes, but it is often the fashion photographer who moves behind the
scenes to make it happen. Fashion Photography in the twenty first
century is much more than the model, but more on fashion, clothing,
cosmetics. The images today are emphasized shots, elaborated poses
and exotic backdrops to peak the public's interest, increase sex appeal
and sell their final product in magazines, televisions and even the
internet. Today's art of eye-catching imagery has transformed fashion
photography in to an outstanding art form.

Word count: 1614

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Bibliography:

Badger, G. (2007) The Genius Of Photography. London: Quadrille

Publishing Limited.

Langford, M. (1982) The Master Guide to Photography. London: Random

House.

O'Rourke, A. (2005) History of Fashion Photography. [Online]. Available from

Http://www.aidan.co.uk/article_fashion1.htm [Accessed 2009, October 18].

Rosenblum, N. (1984) A World History of Photography. New York: Cross

River Press, Ltd.

Sherwood, J. (1998) David Bailey, Models Close-Up. London: Macmillan

Publishers Ltd.

(2008) History of Photography. [Online]. Available from

Http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575589/History_of_Photography.ht
ml [Accessed 2009, October 18].