7 Photographs That Changed Fashion!

After watching 7 photographs that changed fashion, I was so inspired in ways that I could display my model, background, and so much more for my digital images project. So much so that I’m researching the 7 photographers that was mentioned in this short film.

    Sir Cecil Beaton (14/01/1904) earned renown as a fashion photographer in the 1920s and '30s before becoming an award-winning costume designer for stage and film productions. In the 1920s, seeking to pursue his interest in photography, Beaton sent photos to editors and fell in with the Bright Young Things, London’s bohemian crowd. He then started working for Vanity Fair and Vogue which is where he became known for unique style of posing sitters with unusual backgrounds. 
    Cecil Beaton is probably one of the most celebrated and sought-after photographers of the last century. As a young man Beaton was transfixed by glamour but as he matured some of his best photographs would be of old people as they were, capturing their spirit. All stars wanted to be photographed by Beaton and he wanted to photograph the stars. For Monroe, the image which is one of my personal favourites, Beaton had been trying to arrange the shoot for three months but she still turned up an hour and 15 minutes late at a suite in New York's Ambassador hotel. 

    "She romps, she squeals with delight, she leaps on the sofa. She puts a flower stem in her mouth, puffing on a daisy as though it were a cigarette. It is an artless, impromptu, high-spirited, infectiously gay performance. It will probably end in tears." Said Beaton himself about Marilyn Monroe. Which I think really gives an idea in your head as of what Marilyn was like, and explains why a lot of his photographs of her involve bed, flowers and lots and lots of smiles.

    Erwin Blumbenfeld (26/01/1897), was a photographer and artist born in Germany. He is best known for his fashion photography published in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the 1940s and 50s. Working for both Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, Blumbenfeld created a different spin on fashion photography for Vogue by not questioning facial features like one of the most iconic Vogue covers in fashion history the 1950s Vogue cover which featured a blank background, showing just an eye and lips. A little known fact about this cover, it was actually shot in black and white then added colour at the printing process. Another personal favourite of his which shocked the fashion world for the May 1939 issue of French Vogue that was taken up by the fiftieth anniversary of the Eiffel Tower. It's a big enough risk being up on the Eiffel Tower with safety equipment, but with a model basically hanging on the edge and a photographer trying to capture this moment, probably hanging off various beams as well it's crazy to think that no other photographer will probably attempt this again.

    Richard Avedon (15/05/1923) was a American fashion and portrait photographer. In 1946, Avedon had set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life. Has soon became the chief photographer for Harper's Bazaar. Avedon did not conform to the standard technique of taking studio fashion photographs, where models stood emotionless and seemingly indifferent to the camera. Instead, Avedon showed models full of emotion, smiling, laughing, and many times, in action in outdoor settings which was revolutionary at the time.

    David Bailey (2/01/1938), in 1960 Bailey was a photographer for John Cole's Studio Five, before becoming a fashion photographer for British Vogue. Along with Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, Bailey captured and helped create the 'Swinging London' of the 1960s: a culture of fashion and celebrity chic.
    "The kind lion on the Savannah: incredibly attractive, with a dangerous vibe. He was the electricity, the brightest, most powerful, most talented, most energetic force at the magazine". Said a former girlfriend.
    Most interviews I've come across, where a women or man has spoken about Bailey, they seem to talk about their chemistry with him. It has also been said that his shoots are very intermit, and sexual which really translates into most of his work, you can almost see the attraction between him and his model. I think his work really changed fashion photography in which it introduced a sexual vibe without it being completely obvious. Bailey didn't need the model to have their breasts out and be half naked in front of the camera, he knew what worked and what didn't he knew how to make someone sexy without the model even really trying.

    Helmut Newton (31/10/1920). In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Land in Melbourne and worked on fashion and theatre photography in the post-war years. Newtons growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashion in an Australian supplement for Vogue, earning him a contract with the magazine. Newton then left London and went to Paris. Newton still continued to work as a fashion photographer and his work appeared in magazines including French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He established a style marked by erotic, stylised scenes, often with fetishistic subtexts. As you can see from the image above, his work brings the question of "what is actually happening here?", with the dark, dim lighting and strange backgrounds to contrast with what the models are doing in his images. 

    Guy Bourdin (2/12/1928), was a French fashion photographer known for his provocative fashion images. Bourdin worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Issey Miyake, Gianni Versace, and Bloomingdales. Bourdins first exhibition was held at the V&A in London 2003 which toured the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Galerie Nationale Du Jeu De Paume in Paris.
    "While convention fashion images make beauty and clothing their central elements, Bourdin's photographs offer a radical alternative." I completely agree with this quote on Bourdins work, just like Newtons work it pushes the boat out and opens a different door on what can be done in fashion photography. It also shows us a different prospective on a beauty image, it shows us the beauty on the human body compared to other beauty images that focus on beauty and clothing.
    Bourdins style of photography are often richly sensual but also rely heavily on provocation and ability to shock, integrating erotic, surreal, sinister components. Some criticisms of Bourins work include his models "often appeared dead or injured", critics have accused him of objectifying women, however his photographs were described as "highly controlled" and "famous for a mysterious sense of danger and sex, of the fearsome but desirable, of taboo and the surreal".

    Herbert Ritts (13/08/1952). While living in Los Angeles, he became interested in photography when he and his friend Richard Gere, then an aspiring actorm decided to shoot some photographs in front of an old jacked up Buick. He then went to shoot Brokke Shields for the October 1981 issue of Elle, and Oliva Newton-John for her Physical album in 1981. 5 years later, he replicate that cover pose with Madonna for her 1986 True Blue release.
    During the 1980s Ritts photographed many fashion and nude photos for models such as Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Tatjana Patitz. Other work also included covers for Interview, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair.