The fascinating world of fashion has recently received extra media attention due to movies such as Meryl Streep's The Devil Wears Prada, Coco Avant Chanel and the reality TV show Project Runway. Viewers have been given a behind-the-scene view of some of the high and low points of this illusive ever-changing and flamboyant industry. Fashion photography portrays a realm of illusion, fantasy, glitz and glamour. Over the years, fashion photographers have used methods and settings that are often increasingly startling and outrageous.
Glamour itself is still a fairly modern invention. Ideas about beauty, glamour and fashion have changed drastically over time. One only has to remember the emaciated often drug affected models of recent times and contrast them to the much fuller figures of even the 1930s and '40s to recognize how fashion values can change. Ideas of grace and elegance amount to something fundamentally different as time passes. The huge explosion in digital and photo manipulation has added to this world of shifting fashionable illusion.
Fashion photography is devoted to highlighting clothing and fashion in advertisements or in fashion style magazines such as Vogue or Vanity Fair, focusing on the use of models to showcase fashion items. Its main goal is still to sell products by presenting them in a positive light.
International Center of Photography Exhibition
New York City has always been one of the fashion capitals of the world and therefore it seem very fitting that a photography exhibition highlighting Fashion Photography called Dress Codes would be mounted at the International Center of Photography (ICP) located in the heart of New York City.
In 2009, the ICP has had a series of projects that have been critically examining fashion and its relationship to art, culture and society. Clothing is a universal language that can communicate class, status, race, religion, and more. The New York City exhibition features 34 artists whose work, examines fashion in relation to wider social and cultural issues.
These international artists from 18 countries including Japan, China, Germany, France, Canada, United States, investigate fashion in everyday dress, high fashion, street fashion, or uniforms — as a way of acknowledging individuality, personal identity, culture, religion and political statements. The focus is on fashion as a form of social communication. The exhibition will be on display until January 17, 2010.
The Photographers
In this exhibition, Dress Code, German artist Thorsten Brinkmann photographs himself in extraordinary costumes that he creates from castoff clothing and household objects salvaged from the street or from flea markets. By masking his face with items like flowerpots or lamp shades, his images blur the distinctions between body, costume and objects.
Korean artist Kimsooja uses video in her installation Mumbai: A Laundry Field, showing the intensely hued garments and textiles in the Indian cityscape. New York photographer Martha Rosler presents her photo series, called Invasion, highlighting images such as military tanks and an army of neatly coiffed male models in high fashion suits as a comment on the interdependency of the military and commercial sectors. The 34 artists present a multiplicity of diverse and internationally striking images.
These are not the photos of famous fashion celebrity photographers such as a Richard Avedon or Annie Leibovitz - photo artists who took fashion photography in whole new directions by forsaking rigid formal poses for freer, exploratory photography. A previous exhibition at ICP did also include the works of Richard Avedon. (1923–2004) At the same time, this present exhibition is a valuable view into how lesser-known but skilled photographers represent fashion in different cultural contexts.
Photography School
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a world-class museum and school dedicated to exploring photography through exhibitions and educational programs. ICP presents a wide range of historical and contemporary photographs in its exhibitions, and houses a collection of more than 100,000 original prints that span the history of photography.
The school at ICP offers full-time master's and certificate programs, as well as part-time and adult coursework. ICP was founded in 1974 by noted photojournalist Cornel Capa as a museum and one of the largest schools of photography in the world. Over 600 one person and group exhibitions have been presented by bringing the works of more than 2500 photographers to public view.
Photography Courses
The ICP offers a variety of courses including: Finding Your Voice as a Photographer. This course aims to teach students to produce work that is truly one’s own - along with covering topics such as composition, equipment, lighting, print style, and the works of master photographers. Courses in the practice of Fashion Photography are also offered covering everything from selecting a location to casting and handling models to create a successful shoot.
The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California and the School of Visual Arts in New York also offer fashion photography courses.
At times, fashion photography has also been known to cross over into the field of photojournalism .
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