PHOTOGRAPHY
NOW ON VIEW: THE ART OF FASHION BY DANIEL CAPPELLO
WHY DO SOME fashion photographs transcend their commercial character to function as works of art, while others do not? This is a central question posed—and answered—in an exhibition titled “Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography, 1911–2011,” on view through October 21 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In part, the answer lies in the ability of the fashion photograph to reflect two or more worlds: the “perfect” world inside the frame—where youth, beauty, and luxury reign supreme—and the harsh realities of the world outside it. The best fashion photographs remind us of other works of art or expand the boundaries of the genre, redefining what a fashion photograph is supposed to do, or be. Beginning in 1911—the year Edward Steichen created the first “artistic” fashion photographs—and ending in 2011 with digital technology as a dominant paradigm, this exhibition surveys the rich and varied history of modern fashion photography. From the era of Vogue to the era of Instagram, the show, generously supported by Arlene Schnitzer and Jordan Schnitzer, traces fashion photography’s trajectory from a niche industry to a powerful cultural force, and its gradual recognition as a veritable form of art. u This page: An untitled Fujicolor Crystal Archive print by Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan, Spring 1977, © The Guy Bourdin Estate, Courtesy of Louise Parks, New York, 1950, © The Gordon Parks Foundation (below). Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Black Evening Dress in Flight by Hiro, New York, 1963, © Hiro; Uma in Dress by Patou, 1986, by Sheila Metzner, © Sheila Metzner; Diana Newman, 1966, gelatin silver print by Neal Barr, © Neal Barr; The Mainbocher Corset by Horst P. Horst, Paris, 1939, © Condé Nast, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
T H E J . PAU L G E T T Y M U S E U M
Alexander Gallery (above); Bettina and Frances McLaughlin-Gill by Gordon