Fashion photography trends and visual change

Fashion photography is photography that portrays clothing and other fashion items, typically by photographing a dressed model in a studio or outside setting. The lessons answer how its visual language changes and help readers understand the shifts in how fashion is pictured. They consider changing styles, contexts, and approaches to making fashion images.

3 articles, 1 book

The reading path

1. Read
   

   fashion photography trends · Wikipedia · 8 min read

   Fashion photography took a step toward fine art when publisher Lucien Vogel dared photographer Edward Steichen to promote it through photography in 1911. Steichen photographed gowns designed by couturier Paul Poiret; Art et Décoration published the photographs in April 1911, and Jesse Alexander says they are "...now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot." Fashion photography trends diverged between the United States and Europe as Paris became isolated from the United States, especially when Vogue Paris shut down for a brief hiatus in 1940. John French pioneered a form of fashion photography suited to newsprint reproduction, using natural light and low contrast.

2. Read
   

   Posturing - a new vision of the body in fashion - 1854 Photography · British Journal of Photography · 6 min read

   Fashion photography trends in Posturing raise the question of whether glamour and opulence have been superseded by humour and absurdity. Marshall, an independent fashion curator and archivist, says, "The overarching theme of the exhibition is purely aesthetic."

3. Read
   

   Contending With Fashion Photography's Artifice · Hyperallergic

   Many of Bassman's photographs abstract their subject matter through camera angling, posing, and darkroom distortions. Oftentimes, her models do not look directly at the camera or their faces are obscured with smoke, shadows, or a photographic blur.

4. Book
   

   The Fashion Photography Course · Bookshop.org

   The Fashion Photography Course by Eliot Siegel describes the creative process behind fashion photography and the evolution of trends in a narrative format, with practical insights into how trends develop.

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