Big World Picture: Fashion Photography

I really love fashion photography. Why do I love it? For me, it’s the sense of drama, the often vivid colours and strong compositions. I like the thought that fashion photographers go to great lengths to get what they require out of a shoot, not unlike other photographers really but this form of expression only exists to promote and to make sales and money. There is no limit or set style to fashion photography, sometimes it may be a straight forward portrait style photo, a highly staged still form a movie or even the fact that it may not even look like a fashion photo in the obvious sense. In this post I will go through a brief history of fashion photography and then I shall finish with a selection of photographers and photos by them that stand out and really catch my attention.

So what is Fashion photography? Fashion photography first came about around 1839. Whilst we have always had the ideas of what is and what’s not fashionable, the idea of taking a photograph to sell clothes and the idea of promoting what is “fashionable” is a fairly new concept (if you class 1839 as recent). The term “Fashion photography” is given to photos that’s sole purpose is to show clothing or fashion items. The most common form of fashion photography is in advertisements or magazines dedicated to fashion, such as Vogue or Elle.

In 1856 a photographer called Adolphe Braun published a book featuring over 200 photos of Countess di Castiglione, Virginia Oldoini. The Countess was a Tuscan noblewoman at the court of Napoleon III. The photographs were of the Countess in her official court clothes thus possibly making her the first “fashion” model.

Later halftone printing made it possible for fashion photos to be printed in newspapers, making its first appearance in a French magazine called La mode pratique in 1909. 1911 saw what was later thought of as the first ever fashion photography shoot for a magazine called Art et Décoration.

From 1911 up until the appearance of contemporary fashion photographers some of the most know photographers were names such as Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi, Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolfe. These photographers helped shape the whole look of fashion photography. These photographers threw away the whole idea that fashion photographs should be static looking photos opting for a far freer style of photography.