Fashion as Photograph

Fashion photography is around us wherever we go these days. Magazines, adverts, billboards, TV. It seems like quite a normal thing, photograph fashion to show to the public. Online stores do it to promote certain pieces of clothing, but photographing the clothing on a person you get a better idea of what it will look like once worn. There is another way, ghost mannequin - this is the disappearance of the human body and you could even class it as fashion in still life form. Just because it is fashion doesn't mean it cannot be classed as an artform.

Fashion photography has been around since 1856. The image to the right shows a Tuscan noblewoman, Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, photographed by Adolphe Braun. He published a book which contained 288 photographs of her so in affect, Virginia Oldoini became one of the first fashion models. 

Fashion magazines had been about long before photography, however only illustrations were used as the technology had not bee developed. It wasn't until the 1900's when improvements were made to the halftone printing process, this meant that photographs could now be reproduced in magazines. During the 1920's and 30's the leaders in fashion photography were Vogue and Harpers Bazaar (both fashion magazines).

As the years have gone by problems have arisen with fashion photography. First launched in 2003, digital manipulation started to appear. This allowed people to go in and re-touch photographs, bodies and skin can be made 'perfect'. They can be made how you want them to look and how you want the world to see it. Back in the 90's there was a trend to show the real people, the grittiness, however once this came about people returned to wanting the style and sophistication of Hollywood glamour of the 40's and 50's. This has become a major issue within society and it basically depicts how you should look. It shouldn't be about photography slim people in haute couture, it should be people of any shape or size, it should be accessible to everyone. Fashion photography is seen everywhere and no-one should feel outcast by it. People should be able to relate and to feel comfortable with how they are and not have really slim models being the face of fashion.

In our modern day, it is not just restricted to magazines anymore, the internet is home to fashion blogs, people are able to not only show what they are wearing but to express their opinions. The internet is the place where it can be distributed worldwide. As magazines become more expensive people may turn more and more to blogs as they are a free source. Fashion photography will always be around, just the tables might be turned. Everyone can do it themselves now so it is already more accessible.

I found an interesting article where the architect, Jason Spiliotakos had created 3D backdrops for a new catalogue of a new fashion designer. This is quite different take and it shows how technology is combining within fashion. By doing this it might reduce the cost of flying the model, photographer and any extra people out onto location, however it depends on how long it would take to model and texture the backgrounds. The merging of different types of media is becoming more frequent now a days and sometimes these experimentations work and could open up new possibilities. It's definitely something to watch in the future as this work could lead to more job opportunities within the industry.