Last night The Photographers’ Gallery (the U.K.’s first independent gallery devoted to photography) previewed Fashion in the Mirror: Self-Reflection in Fashion Photography. This body of work is curated by Michel Mallard and Raphaëlle Stopin, organizers of the annual International Fashion and Photography Festival in Hyères (www.villanoailles-hyeres.com/hyeres2008).
The birth of fashion photography as the visual representation of glamour, seduction and dreams took place within the photographer’s studio. The post World War II period saw a new breed of fashion photographers venturing out of their studios in search of more realistic, alternative locations. More recently, notably in the 1990s with its championing of the so-called ‘grunge’ style, the fashion photograph has persisted in trying to shake off its image of being purely decorative.
The photographers in Fashion in the Mirror seek their subject matter within rather than beyond their own field. The works in the exhibition deconstruct the image-making process and lay bare the basic principles of the fashion photograph; the way it is staged, its artificiality and the notion of ‘perfect beauty,’ finding both comedy and poetry in the set-up of the studio. The exhibition will present an overview of this self-examination and an intriguing look behind-the-scenes from the 1940s to the present day.
The addition of assistants, stylists and photographic equipment within the photograph draws attention to the cliché of the ‘fashion entourage’ and queries the myth of the slick fashion image.
Some pieces appear artificiality staged in a studio setting, and others are candids shot on location, surrounded by nature’s beauty.
The exhibition officially opens July 18th and runs through September 14th.
More information is available at www.photonet.org.uk.
