William Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Harper's Bazaar, 2007 © William Klein/ Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
Fashion in the Mirror at the Photographers' Gallery
presents 60 fashion photographs in which photographers, make-up
artists, technical equipment and studio sets feature alongside the
models. Revealing how the images are constructed, the focus is on
fashion photography as a process rather than the final air-brushed shot.
The
exhibition ranges from magazine covers and spreads to original prints,
reprints and photographs on adhesive stickers. The earliest works from
the 1950s, when photographers first expanded the picture frame to
include the set. In the 1960s photographers became as famous as their
muses: in one image, Norman Parkinson takes a shot in front of mirrors
(1962); in another, Bert Stern shoots David Bailey as he lies on the
floor to take a photograph of model Veruschka (1965).
One of the
most striking shots is "Green Bath" (1972) by Harri Peccinotti, which
features a naked model in a bath of green water. Peccinotti says of the
shoot: "So I climbed up there above the bathtub and I saw my reflection
on the water, right on the model's pubis. I asked the girl to lie very
still, waited for the image to settle, and shot. For a self portrait, I
find it quite flattering."
Some of the pictures play homage to
each other. William Klein shot Karl Lagerfeld surrounded by people
carrying placards with his photograph (2007) thirty years after Melvin
Sokolsky shot Twiggy surrounded by her own image (1967). Others parody
celebrity lifestyles: Steven Meisel's "Super Mods Enter Rehab" shows
women getting out of cars without not only underwear but anything else
on their bottom half.
The single Mario Testino portrait in the
exhibition is playful but serious. It shows model Snejana Onopka, in
2007, dressed as Anna Wintour, with trademark glasses and bob. Testino
shot the story for Vogue Paris, "to pay homage to Anna's iconic status
and impeccable style". The image recognises how fashion is now
dominated by editors-in-chief as much as photographers.
The
Photographers' Gallery is also showing 'Them' by London based
photographer, Danny Treacy. For an ongoing collection of self portraits
Treacy sews together clothes from skips, wastelands and even car
crashes to make a new "skin" which he wears in haunting self portraits.
The
seven photographs, printed so that the figures are larger than
life-size, dominate the room. The pictures have a real intimacy as the
viewer is forced to think about the origin of each piece of clothing.
Treacy says: "A vital part of the process is in the act of locating the
clothing. There is for me something furtively erotic or desperately
lonely in much of the clothing that I find. This is the starting point."
As
part of its "In Focus" project, bringing the themes of the two
exhibitions together, the gallery invites visitors to add their own
photographs to images of items that have been chosen or rejected away
by Hans Aarsman. With 'Photography Against Consumerism' the photography
writer from Amsterdam asks us to question the materialism of modern
life.
Fashion in the Mirror, Danny Treacy: Them and
Photography Against Consumerism are on at the Photographers' Gallery, 5
& 8 Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7HY until September 14.