Conceptual Portraiture

We were asked what is Fashion Photography? 

Here are some suggestions we came up with:

• Advertising/Commercial
• Showing a lifestyle
• Posed and Set up... Sometimes not
• Glamorous 
• Communication / Propaganda
• Artificial 
• Celebrities

But there is no such thing as fashion photography it is categorised as portraiture photography. 

Tim Walker's fascination for photography started when he worked on Cecil Beaton's (also another fashion photographer) archive as work experience before attending university. After graduating he worked as a freelance photography assistant then moved to New York working as a full-time assistant to Richard Avedon. When he returned to England his attention was focused on portrait and documentary work for UK newspapers and then shot his first fashion story at 25 for vogue. Tim walker is best known for his larger than life sized props. 

I chose these three photographs out of many of his works because they show how much effort and hard work is put into each photograph.

Tim Walker's photographs push boundaries because he has an enormous idea and then has to convey his idea to his crew set such as hair and make-up artists, fashion stylists/ costume fitters,  set designers and builders to build his life sized creations but also to the models who will be involved.

Nick Knight produced his first book whilst being a student at Bournemouth. Nick was then asked to photograph a series of portraits for i-D magazines 5th anniversary issue which then led to Marc Ascoli liking his images so much that he hired Nick Knight to shoot Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto's catalogue. This was his first fashion photography and since then has worked for many recognizable agencies such as Swarovski, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and many more. 

Nick Knight's work pushes boundaries because it may look like a lot of post production work is done for his images such as adding bits to the photograph but he does it mainly in camera for example the photograph of the lady with two circles of light on her, this photograph was produced by having two lights focused on her and having the rest in shadow. 

Another reason why Nick Knight's work pushes boundaries is because he pushes technology but embraces it he can explore more possibilities and the structures of a photograph.

David Bailey  started off as a photographic assistant at the John French studio and a photographer for John Cole's Studio. Then he was hired as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine in 1960. During the 60's David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy created 'Swinging London' which captured the different cultures. The three photographers were known as the black trinity as they socialised with royalty, actors and even musicians which heightened their status as celebrities. 

The "Swinging London" scene was reflected in his Box of Pin-Ups pictures of 1960s celebrities including The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, Andy Warhol and even the East End gangsters the Kray twins. 

 

David Bailey pushes boundaries because instead of photographing the clothes he captures the personalities and the characters of his subjects.