This image goes beyond the magazine whose purpose is to sell a garment and inform potential customers. This is about the vision of a photographer, the new aesthetic at play, a narrative that goes far beyond fashion.
Fashion magazines are not meant to last. Every month there's a new issue with new images, new dreams to sell. It must be remembered that fashion magazines produce hundreds of thousands of images to sell fashion. Flipping through these magazines, a startling image can suddenly catch your eye.
Once upon a time, the only place to see a fashion photograph was in the pages of a magazine or maybe stuck on a teenage girl's bedroom wall; but things have changed, with museums hosting major exhibitions, galleries and auction houses selling fashion imagery, and publishers constantly releasing new titles dedicated to fashion photography. Removed from its original context (the magazine page), fashion photography is the rising star of art. The art world is much more accepting of fashion photography because museums have moved from high art to an all-encompassing visual culture. For a long time, fashion photography was seen as purely commercial. However, contemporary photographers don't necessarily conceive of their work as an adaptation into a single category or medium. In the 21st century, the lines between editorial work, advertising work and personal work are now blurred. Digital media have changed the way photography is reported, consumed and shared.
The show includes the work of today's most acclaimed fashion photographers, such as Nick Knight, Paolo Roversi, Peter Lindbergh, Miles Aldridge, Ellen von Unwerth. It will also involve new generation photography and film, Blommers & Schumm, Solve Sundsbo, Daniel Sannwald, Viviane Sassen or Erik Madigan Heck, all very talented artists who are taking the lead in the years to come. The photographers gathered in this BEYOND FASHION exhibition have reviewed the potential of fashion photography and created an image that goes far beyond fashion.
Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China From 22 February to 15 April 2020
Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, China From the 25 April to the 25 July 2020
Cover image: Miles Aldridge, Home Works #3, 2008 © Miles Aldridge
