Fashion Photographers

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog piece about two incredible fashion photographers; Nick Knight and David LaChapelle. Their work has been consistently praised throughout their careers for creating beautiful larger than life images, using bold colours and being extremely extrovert in their use of props, models and locations.

The second two innovative photographers I wanted to write about are Juergen Teller and Corinne Day. Although all four photographers are fantastic, they all share different asthetics and these two photographers have especially striking images that speak to you, that lift up their message through the pages so the reader can understand that they are not looking at a ‘pretty’ photograph in a surreal place, instead they strip it down artistically to enable a completely different side of photography.

Both can be called fashion photographs but both of them have developed unconventional ways of portraying fashion and their lives. Barely shooting with extravagant locations they take fashion out of the typical realm it is so used to being comfortable in, and shakes up an image by being able to question fashion whilst not disrespecting it.

This article is showing an insight into the 'real' side of fashion photography, that an image can be beautiful even when stripped of it's comforts of photoshop, props, glamour and advertising.

JEURGEN TELLER

JEURGEN TELLER likes to photograph the truth. The very first pictures he took were of a typical landscape in Tuscany and since then he’s excelled himself with shoots for Italian, French, English and American Vogue, ‘W’ Magazine, Self Service, Purple and i-D, although he is first to admit he doesn’t like to think of himself as a Fashion Photographer.

Teller photographs what he likes; people and their emotions. When he first started out, Teller was photographing for record covers and portrait work, when he was taken under Nick Knight’s wing after admitting coming from Germany he felt overwhelmed by the innovative style of magazines such as i-D and The Face. Since he moved to London in 1986, Teller’s photography has been exhibited worldwide in Paris, Munich, The Netherlands and Scotland, to name a few.

 Rather than envision a photograph himself and play it out his way, Teller is a team player and in most of his work, he enjoys the subject in front of the lens to give him creativity to work with and never forces uncomfortable pictures, which sits alongside his vision of truth in photography and knowing he’s got the perfect shot. It is obvious to say that his work doesn’t fall into the same category of the fairytale fashion pictures, but his pictures send a powerful suggestion to take desires further and to delve into a more grunge, underground eclectic fashion scene.

Teller has an innate ability to portray real accuracy behind a picture, and feeds off the reaction of his subjects for a romanticised yet direct picture. His photographs summon a closer sense of uncovering the reality in an industry built upon images that promote an idea of perfection; it is almost as if he is tearing down the airbrushed, glamorous image to replace it with realism.

His photographs for Marc Jacobs support this truth, quirky and unlike most fashion adverts they stand out because there is no direct selling technique – no beautiful women adorned in beautiful clothes, he creates a subtle breath of fresh air amongst the so called ‘perfection’.

Although respectful of the glossy fashion spreads laid out in magazines, he has no interest in them as they do not portray, well, truth; his pictures are never retouched and have a strong essence of genuineness that is very hard to locate normally in a fashion photograph. His work represents an understanding of fashion beyond the commodity.

CORINNE DAY

CORINNE DAY takes a hard approach to fashion photography. Her self-confessed documentary style take on fashion has earned her a few critics back in the 1990s with her intimate and edgy photographs of a 14 year-old Kate Moss. The pictures taken in 1993 shocked the fashion industry whose magazines of the time gleefully indulged in nothing but glamorous fashion pictures.

Perhaps it was Day’s exhaustion with fashion that led her to give up her previous career as a model and teach herself how to photograph. The backlash of critique over the Moss pictures seemed to push her – in the right direction – to begin photographing fashion in a barely ever exposed light. It bared it in a bleak and uncomfortable manner, but expressed truths and new levels of fashion photography. After all why refuse a man a steak because a baby can’t chew it? Day’s opinion of fashion shows the frustration she encounters with superficial images that don’t depict the truth. After the release of the pictures of Kate Moss, Day persisted with her photographic skills for seven years but concentrated on portraying the detailed and very personal ins and outs of her life.

She titled the exhibition ‘Diary’ and amongst the years of built up photographs there were overpoweringly beautiful yet candid shots of her and friends. Perhaps the exhibition - which was also made into a book - provided a form of a pent-up anguish towards the fashion industry that needed to be released in order for Day to make a well received return to fashion a year later. She has continued to use her frank views hand in hand with fashion to develop stunning and unusual photographs.

Day has always shown no regret with regards to how her images conjure up an argumentative view of fashion. She is able to understand both the alluring and the direct side to photographing fashion which enables her to produce pictures that have elements of both.

She is a distinctive photographer because she knows what the fashion industry survives on and starves them of it poetically. Although her more recent images have adjusted nicely in Vogue, there is a gleam in her pictures that offer a reader more than glamour, more than ‘nice’ and ‘pretty’, she has effortlessly shown the minutiae of fashion and her life. She is able to capture the quintessential fashion photograph – and very cleverly manipulate, almost squeeze every typical element to produce a ‘now this is my fashion’ photograph.

What Style Means to Me

A very memorable lady once said “Fashion fades but Style is Eternal”. Who knew back then that Coco Chanel’s words would carry forward the truth for decades in fashion? In honesty, not me. When I was in my teenage years I adored the fashion trends of the season – yes of course now the shock and ‘What was I thinking’ factor inevitably creeps up every time my mother decides to open the photo albums and take that not so chic route down memory lane. I relished the Friday my pocket money was due and not long after it had been withdraw from my father’s bank account it was in the hands of the poor lady in New Look who had to serve me every week.


Looking back yes the cringe factor is through the roof, but it’s shaken off with the unforgettable feeling of being stylish. I loved the way I got to pick whatever I wanted to; after years of my sister and I being matched in the same outfits, I felt very compelled to make a stance with my clothing (bye bye neon lycra biking shorts – yes seriously). I never wonder, even to this day, why people love to buy, make, design or produce clothing because to me it feels as normal as breathing. Clothing is everything, and not in a superficial ‘I must have this’ way, but in a feel good, individual, creative outlet type of way.

Whether its from the back of somebody’s boot on a cold Sunday morning or from the sleekest most polished shop off a high profile street corner in a fashion capital, style is everywhere. Style isn’t always about knowing which Louboutin shoe matches that Miu Miu bag, or deciphering whether that Chloe skirt compliments this Westwood blouse. Impressive, yes but style is a whole aesthetic in itself. It is wonderful to see such a rainbow of style in places such as Brighton and London, Asia and across Europe and the US, but it is frustrating to see not all of these ‘styles’ would make it onto the street style pages of glossy magazines.

Having the latest and most key piece from a designer’s collection unfortunately in my opinion doesn’t make somebody stylish, it knowingly turns them a generic trend setter vacuumed into a very sickening consumption process that would have Thorstein Veblen turn in his grave.

Style is beautiful because it is not restricted to fashion either. Fashionistas may laugh at the sorry woman who rocks her crocs and bum bag down the street but would be taken aback by the volumes of literature, paintings and music collection scattered at her underground library at her ‘stylish’ home in Notting Hill. We may roll our eyes at the lady who hasn’t joined the canvas bag train and instead uses the same old tesco bag for her lunch, yet seem to ignore the fact she rejoices in the theatre, plays and musicals every week. It is these sorts of people that carry the style torch for the supposedly unfashionable.

Style isn’t about looking so made up you’ve come alive from a Karl Lagerfeld sketch, or vice versa looking so ‘underground cool’ that you physically couldn’t leave Shoreditch; it’s about how you carry yourself. Eyes roll with the cliché ‘I mix designer with high street and vintage to create a unique look’ gabble and it’s so often than not people are always trying to be that one step ahead they’re breaking necks to achieve it. I find the most stylish people are the one who create the simplest outfit choices.

Style most definitely does not exist in the ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ pages, in fact I’d call these so called fashion pages the extinguisher to styles exuberant and uncontrollable flames. I pity the people who live their lives by the fashion rule book, heaven forbid navy and black, or shoes with socks. It is when a stylish woman bowls up breaking all these rules and looking completely desirable that it gives a slap on the wrist to these fashion DO’s and DON’Ts. Where would the likes of Maison Martin Margela, Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garcons be now if they slept with this book under their beds at night, before designing their collections?

Fashion is about change; it’s about reinventing classics, looking towards the future and breaking moulds. But style is about being true to yourself, there is nothing wrong wearing head to toe Dior if you feel comfortable in it, because that’s the person and the style you want to portray. Nor does it matter if you have only ever set foot in charity shops, because what works for you makes you stylish. It’s a sorry day when women moan about the latest trends because they don’t suit them, it’s almost an embarrassment to fashion. What does it matter if the ‘gone by the time you’ve saved for it’ fashion doesn’t fit your frame, because if you have original style every other trend merely becomes a spec.

Style is about embracing yourself and what you love, not about what the fashion pages love, or what your friends love. Enjoy wearing the latest ‘looks’ or don’t, because at the end of the day if you feel like a shrinking violet in your attire, it shows the hold that fashion has on you, and how your style has faded away.

ALL IMAGE ARTUR WESOLOWSKI. http://supermodels.nl/photographers/arturwesolowski