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In this thread I thought it would be cool to talk about fashion photography as a field and awesome fashion photographers as well as talk aout drama and ethical issues. Let's start with some pretty awesome Fashion Photographers. In no particular order - Tim Walker   Noted for his fairy tale style and fantastical props. Tim Walker is a bit of an eccentric and I believe still shoots film and mostly natural light, and almost all the weird stuff you see in his pictures are actually there. Giant swans and all that are meticulously crafted props. As well as being good Walker has inspired a generation of young photographers to mimic his style with photomanipulation and generate an internet photography trend bubble. Camilla Akrans   Swedish photographer Camilla Akrans has a wonderful natural and airy style for her location work. I find her studio work weak by comparison. Akrans is her best with gorgeous natural light. Mario Testino   All good photographers can do it to an extent but Testino can shoot almost any style as noted by the example images. Raw and Sexy to Soft and Beautiful. He's shot nearly everything and anyone worth shooting over his career. By virtue of them sharing a name I'm going to lump Mario Sorrenti in this paragraph too. Both are similar in that they are very adaptable and it's hard to pin down a particular style for them. Both are very much directors who craft how they're going to shoot to the brief, not force it to their style. Terry Richardson   Richardson is the Gursky of fashion photography. A lot of armchair internet photographer's enjoy making GBS threads on his style but Richardson's interaction with his subjects and his sense of humour produces fun and energetic shots. He shoots very lo-fi notably using Yashica T4s pre-digital to now relying on a speedlite for most of his work. When necessary he can adapt for the client and he has been seen to use a softbox on occasion. Richardson is probably the one photographer most people would recognise as he's in front of the camera almost as much as his subjects. Notorious for blurring the lines between professionalism and inappropriateness, it's very easy to find pictures of Terry's penis online and in his books. At times the target of allegations of sexual misconduct - no official charges have ever been made against him. Ellen Von Unwerth   CATTE!Von Unwerth is probably my favourite photographer. Preferring black and white film but dabbling in color, Von Unwerth like Richardson disdains complexity and uses very simple lights (on camera and HMI lighting). She has a talent for producing fun and sensual images. Vincent Peters   Vincent Peters out of all these names is probably the most underrated. Gorgeous lighting (mostly HMI film lighting) as well as beautiful natural light. Shoots on medium format film (one interview I read says he basically tells clients to GTFO if they want him to shoot digital). He's rad as hell. Other photographers There's so many other great photographers out there it'd be hard to list them all, not to mention it's pretty tricky finding them. One way of getting inspired is to look at photography agencies and who they represent. We're also in an age where a lot of photographers are using social media, however the caveat is that I find a lot of them tend to make more noise than produce great work. With thanks to Sonambulist - http://www.complex.com/art-design/2...hers-right-now/ Paragon8 fucked around with this message at Mar 4, 2013 around 11:29 |
| # ? Mar 3, 2013 17:12 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 13:49 |
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Post reserved for talking about drama/ethical issues. or maybe just rad models if people prefer that. The Numero/Blackface affair. Recently Numero magazine (a decently respectable fashion magazine but not one you'd see in the average newsagent published an editorial titled African Queen featuring a white model. The styling was heavily inspired by African culture, controversially there was an artistic decision to bronze the model's skin significantly and further enhance that in post production. The blogosphere (mostly Huffington Post) jumped on this and called the processing akin to blackface. I shall now link some of the images here for you to make your own minds up -   While I think blackface is a bit of an exaggeration I think the editorial showed a pretty abhorrent lack of awareness. Darkening the skin is used frequently for sun drenched beach editorials without looking like blackface but in the context of an editorial called African Queen and styling that borrows heavily from various African cultures... The problem when fashion stylists and photographers try to do something controversial or edgy it ends up being incredibly superficial because there's no real understanding behind the depth of some issues and looks dumb. Fashion photography can be controversial and taboo and that helps make it awesome but sometimes it falls flat on its face. The problem I don't think is using a white model with African styling - I think there's a good concept in that - but just that the editorial team didn't step back and realise how it would all look put together with the bronzed skin, the stylistic choices, and the title. I think even a black model within this editorial would have ended up being offensive. A lot of the backlash against this editorial highlighted the lack of black and other ethnic models in the fashion industry. Which is an interesting discussion point. There are more and more talented black and asian women modelling but the majority are white. The stat of white models vs. other ethnicity's participating in New York Fashion Week gets thrown around a lot as a negative (82% white I believe) but I think that's getting close to the US's ethnic stats, and hopefully it'll keep improving. Cameron Russell is a boss Must watch TED talk, experienced model talking about her thoughts on the industry. Paragon8 fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2013 around 17:35 |
| # ? Mar 3, 2013 17:12 |
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I really like Jacques Olivar.  
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 18:37 |
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One of my favorite photographers / designers / fashion photographers is Hedi Slimane. Really simple but effective B&W (most of the time) stuff.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 05:03 |
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Hedi Slimane's Dior Homme line is still one of my favorite fashion lines ever. So drat awesome. He's also a great photographer. Tim Walker is my favorite, but I also like Patrick Demarchelier (and his son Victor), Alessandro Dal Buoni, Estevez & Beloso, Ben Hassett, Nick Knight, Mert & Marcus, and I dont care how mainstream she is, Annie Leibovitz is legendary. Also here is a good resource: http://www.complex.com/art-design/2...hers-right-now/
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 05:20 |
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I think the most interesting fashion photographers at the moment are Roman Noven and Tania Shcheglova, who work together as Synchrodogs.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 05:26 |
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Great thread so far, I've already found a good bit of inspiration.Reichstag posted:I think the most interesting fashion photographers at the moment are Roman Noven and Tania Shcheglova, who work together as Synchrodogs. That is loving fantastic.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 06:08 |
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Good idea for a thread.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 06:48 |
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somnambulist posted:Hedi Slimane's Dior Homme line is still one of my favorite fashion lines ever. So drat awesome. He's also a great photographer. Added the link to OP, post some pictures! I'd say that Leibovitz is probably in a separate class of celebrity photographers that includes Nadev Kandar, Platon etc. - not quite fashion but sharing a lot of traits. Workshops I'm just going to copy this section idea from photojournalism thread. There are a lot of workshops and dvds out there, my personal view is I'd prefer to spend the money on lighting, studio hire, chinese food etc. as some of these run more than four figures a day and can have more than 10 participants. Most of the people offering workshops aren't really the one's you'd want to learn from and it seems like workshops are a way to make a quick buck for the photographers that have enough of a following to pull in attendees. It might be worth it if you have no experience with models or working with large teams but a lot of the time I feel like the money could be better invested in another facet of your development. Paragon8 fucked around with this message at Mar 4, 2013 around 11:42 |
| # ? Mar 4, 2013 11:32 |
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Paragon8 posted:Post reserved for talking about drama/ethical issues. I agree that the entire thing is offensive. And blackface is blackface, regardless of how "nicely" they did it. It was obviously meant to make her look "African." This is a really common problem in the fashion industry, one that I have a huge problem with. It seems like every season, some major fashion house decides it's edgy to do something offensive, and then begs ignorance or art as a reason. And then you've got literal anti-semites high up the industry (http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...ticle-1.1263135) that don't receive much backlash, much less racists. The other problem with model diversity in the US is that often the non-white models are internationally famous models. Non white americans have a much harder time getting to the runway in New York. Additionally, any nonwhites who do make it are chosen on the basis of how closely they resemble white model ideals, or specifically chosen because of their exoticism. I want to love fashion and fashion photography because it's all about art and display and clothing and beautiful people, but it's quite ugly in a lot of respects. I'm just really tired of violent imagery, exoticism, body parts, etc being used to sell. It's not even very creative... let me predict the next big ad campaign: A thin white girl getting violently shot while wearing a $20,000 dress, with her mouth open in O, while several men (one black!) stand around in the background. I still do like to keep up a lot with alternative fashion though, like street fashion, where a lot of the time it's still about personal style.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 14:40 |
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nonanone posted:I agree that the entire thing is offensive. And blackface is blackface, regardless of how "nicely" they did it. It was obviously meant to make her look "African." This is a really common problem in the fashion industry, one that I have a huge problem with. It seems like every season, some major fashion house decides it's edgy to do something offensive, and then begs ignorance or art as a reason. And then you've got literal anti-semites high up the industry (http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...ticle-1.1263135) that don't receive much backlash, much less racists. Yeah, exactly. I have no problem with pushing boundaries if it's tastefully done but I don't think a lot of stylists or art directors understand nuance. I think the issue with finding good non-white models comes down to scouting. I think the UK is a lot better in that regard, I follow a couple of agency scouts on twitter and they go everywhere.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 14:50 |
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David LaChapelle is a good example of pushing the boundaries of tasteful while still being exciting and interesting and not (too) offensive. I'm also a big fan of Juergen Teller, who I think does the Terry Richardson-thing better. Despite their overall styles looking similar, I feel Teller pulls better emotions out of his models, making it feel intimate rather than creepy. As more people of color and women rise in the industry, the problem (hopefully) should take care of itself. With the advent of indie fashion blogs, etc, we're starting to see a real split (and yet merger) of what mainstream fashion is. Fashion photography has to change with it too.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 15:20 |
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I think blogs are definitely the future for the majority of fashion photography. I can definitely see awesome print magazines existing in a bi-yearly type format and charging more than newstand prices. It always blows my mind when an agency won't let me publish to Ben Trovato or FGR but will be like "oh yeah that poo poo issu magazine is fine because it has a fake barcode" I hope the problem will take care of itself. It would be nice to get briefs that don't specify race.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 15:35 |
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The small time fashion scene here in Houston runs in two flavors, its either the LowRider magazine style Bitches and Ho's shoots, or about a year's behind in style "Alt" fashion. Its pretty ridiculous, like most everything else done here, in that we've got a huge population, a huge artistic community, but next to no recognition outside of the local area for any of it. About the only thing Houston is known for is Destiny's Child and purple drank, and even then, most people assume those two things originated in LA. There was an exhibition here in 2007 called "Never Been to Houston" that asked photographers from around the world to take pictures of places they thought resembled the city. The results were pretty hilarious. You either get the gently caress out of Houston or fall in to one of the two categories mentioned above. For the photographers you've got Jay Marroquin, who is pretty good but doesn't really identify with the city. He'd rather be elsewhere, and that's fine, but it means that Houston gets less exposure than it otherwise would. Recently, he's started casting for more editorial work here, and that's been a step in the right direction. Just a step down, you have guys like Rome Wilkerson and the rest of the group that operates out of Houston Professional Photography. The website alone is pretty telling, and since it is a group of photographers with differing skills and areas of interest, their final product is always inconsistent. However, you can be sure that your boudoir shoot will be well attended by a number of professional light holders, reflector operators, and set-decorators. The "Alt" fashion scene here is almost entirely made up of models who haven't yet, or won't ever make the move to Miami or LA, or have been turned down by agencies because of their weight and photographers who think their work is edgy because breasts. We used to have a photographer that went by Lithium Picnic, but he hosed off to L.A. With his classy tagline of "Hide your Daughters" he was, for a while, the go-to guy for girls who wanted to show off their PVC dresses or models who wanted to get in to alt. The LowRider stuff is almost entirely peopled by the worst sort of creepy guys who drop $5000 on a camera and expect panties to come flying off. Since a lot of local rap and duro tejano groups will commission these guys for album covers there has been an escalation of sorts to see who could cram the most booty in to a single image. Sadly, a lot of the really really excellent African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American modeling talent that stays in the city winds up here. It is one of the few modeling gigs for women of color that pays well and doesn't involve borderline prostitution. The white girls get to put on pretty dresses and cowboy hats, then lay in fields of blue bonnets and get spreads in Texas Monthly, the girls who aren't white get to put on dental floss and writhe on top of someone's shitted up Evo VII. Of course, this is all my own perception and to be taken with a grain of salt.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 17:16 |
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I've shot some of the same girls that Jay has shot funnily enough! Unfortunately if you're not in a fairly cosmopolitan city you're going to end up pretty pigeonholed. Even in London you end up with pretty strong trends.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 18:42 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 13:49 |
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This thread shouldn't die.  Instax wide.
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| # ? May 2, 2013 01:39 |
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