Fashion

and the Portrait

Helmut Newton, YSL Rive Gauche, 1978

1) Origins

Portraiture in purely visual terms originated in the aim to render individually the representa@on of a gure, bust or face in order to convey something about the siEer, about the person who is being depicted. This aim quickly morphed into the ambi@on to transmit an essence that was beyond the visual appearance; the no@on that the subjec@vity of the depicted man or woman, his or her inner workings or psychology could be made visible on the surface of the image through posture, gesture, facial expression, symbolic aEributes or environment. With the advent of photography in the middle of the nineteenth century this ambi@on was replaced by the task to represent as realis@cally as possible the siEer or objects in the picture. Previous portraiture in pain@ng or sculpture had nego@ated the duality of material and psychological representa@on through the subjec@ve input of the ar@st (his or her own style of making a portrait); photography now had to reverse this task and start to imbue the direct analogy between the real facial and corporeal features of the siEer and those on the image with a psychological or at least a symbolic dimension. How can an image that is meant to be the most faithful representa@on possible con@nue to transmit the inner essence of the depicted person?

Roland Barthes, The Photographic Message, 1961

Fashion photography arose quickly as a genre in the laEer half of the nineteenth century in response to: 1) the developing couture industry in France and its demands to transmit in detail and as faithfully as possible the latest styles across the con@nent and to North America and beyond; and 2) the need to represent the siEer not merely as a gure, bust or face that was coded through interchangeable signiers like dress, posture or studio environment but equally through an individualised language of fashion: the subjec@ve choice of clothes that aligned themselves with the latest trend or, conversely, showed themselves conserva@ve and old-fashioned. Fashion became a secondary language that described the siEers ambi@on to present her- or himself in rela@on to contemporary material culture.

Almost instantly, the above men@oned duality of realis@c depic@on (Barthess analogon) and psychological representa@on began to inform and haunt fashion photography as a discrete genre. The couturiers and couturires demanded a faithful image of their material and technical eorts but, simultaneously, they wanted a congenial representa@on of their stylis@c inven@ons. The fashion photographer was thus charged to nego@ate the recording of details (silhoueEe, cut, fabric, etc.) of the garments and accessories with matching (or inven@ng anew) the stylis@c novelty of the sartorial design through his own photographic language. In this context, the role of the siEer became crucial. No longer the subject of the photograph but the wearer of the fashion, she (or, some@mes, he) is objec@ed in the same manner as the designed and styled clothes and accessories she is adorned with in the image: she becomes a signier herself, for the latest styles in hair, make-up, body shape, posture, gesture, facial expression, etc., and her inner workings, her psychology is reduced to formal aspects of the composi@on. The siEer becomes a model in the double sense of the word: a person who models displays in the most advantageous, that is most contemporary manner clothes and accessories , but also a model an abstract stand-in for the personal aspira@ons of the consumer of these fashionable objects.

Studio Meyer et Pierson, La Comtesse de Cas=glioni, 1853-57

F.W. Brookman, Figure de mode tude de mode, 1903-04

Seeberger Frres, Women at the Races, 1909-10

 James Abbe, Natasha Rambova in a dress by Mariano Fortuny, c.1924

Erwin Blumenfeld, The Princess of Pearls, editorial for Harpers Bazaar, Sept. 1939

2) A Silent World

Roland Barthes, The Photographic Message, 1961

Eugne Atget, Basket Weaver, 1899-1900

Eugne Atget, Rue Mouetard, 1926

Eugne Atget, Un=tled [Milliners Shop], 1910

Eugne Atget, Bon March Department Store, 1926-27

Robert Frank, U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas 1955, from the series The Americans

Robert Frank, Un=tled, Paris 1949

3) The Object of Fashion

[]

Roland Barthes, The Photographic Message, 1961

The representa@on of fashion, obviously does not require a siEer, a model. In principle, the materiality (not to men@on ingenuity or inven@on) of the clothing, the stylis@c message should suce. While the catwalk (le dl, literally: the passage) was developed in fashion in the late nineteenth century to show clients how the clothes looked on a body, how they can be animated and, most importantly, how they should be worn according to the designers vision, the sta@c, silent image of the fashion photo would not need the body for the suspension of the clothes. The silhoueEe and cut can be shown on the headless mannequin or the showroom dummy. Least of all does the fashion photography require the face of the model, a physical and psychological individuality that only distracts from the clear representa@on of the garments. The reasons for using the model then are two-fold: 1) she is fashion herself, a representa@on of how the contemporary body is molded, shaped and fashioned by fashion; and 2) she is the organic template against which the object of fashion is set; the required contrast between physical imperfec@on and the perfectly designed surface this is why her make-up is most oien all concealing and her postures and gestures studied and ar@cial: to distract from the fact that the body underneath the fashion is, indeed, subjec@ve and individual, even when the sartorial surface intends to objec@fy it en@rely into fashion.

Hiro, Rudi Gernreich, Harpers Bazaar, January 1966

Richard Avedon, Elise Daniels with street performers (suit by Balenciaga), Harpers Bazaar, October 1948

Helmut Newton, Unpublished photo for Vogue, Paris, December 1971

William Klein, Yves Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 1963, Vogue, 15th March 1963

Chris von Wangenheim, Emeric Partos and James Galanos for Hapers Bazaar, October 1972

Richard Avedon, Penelope Tree in Pierre Cardin, January 1968

David Bailey, Jean Shrimpton in Queen, 4th April 1964

Roland Barthes, The Photographic Message, 1961

Paolo Roversi, lei: photograph for Romeo Gigli Invita=ons, October 1985; right: Culture Shock for LUomo Vogue, March 1985

Roland Barthes, The Photographic Message, 1961

David Seidner, YSL Autumn/Winter 1983-84

Gilles Tapie, YSL Autumn/Winter 1983-84

4) No Subjects

Pierre Boulat, Yves Saint Laurent backstage at his rst own couture show, January 1962

Peter Lindberg, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Pa=tz, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, c.1987

Alfa Castaldi, Sardinian Framer for LUomo Vogue, August 1976

Sarah Moon, Adver=sing campaign for LOral, 1989

Anuschka Bloomers and Niels Schumm, Ciara, Self Service, 1998

5) No Narra@ves

Robert Frank, U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas 1955, from the series The Americans

William Eggleston, Un=tled, 1974

Todd Hiro (photo)/Pijo Visser (styling), Call, Chase, Follow, editorial for S Magazine, No.13, Autumn/Winter 2011!

Cindy Sherman, Un=tled #118 (Fashion), 1983

Cindy Sherman, Adver=sing Photograph for Dorothe Bis, 1984

editorial in purple no.3 (summer 1999)

Beat Streuli, Marseille, 98

 Collier Schorr (photo), Olivier Zahm (styling), Helmut Lang, Summer 1999 Collec=on, New York, purple, no.3 (summer 1999)

Mark Borthwick, Fashion Show at Alleged Gallery, 2001

In fashion photography the depic@on of the siEer (the model) is not a portrait, as the code of fashion itself denies the conven@on of showing the subject as an individual she (or he) is meant to be a template for the objec@ca@on through the surface of clothes and accessories. This is not to be understood as a nega@ve thing, despite the aliena@on or reica@on that the codifying process of fashion might entail. Fashion needs to establish a code something that Roland Barthess would discuss in the late 1960s, too, with his book The Fashion System. If there is no norm or structure then fashion would not exist, only esoteric, individual forms of dressing. In order to come into being fashion needs the code, it needs to be followed and adhered to, so that new trends can subsequently challenge it and new styles can be promoted. This process has, obviously, become ever more rapid in post-industrial consumer socie@es and a shared idea of what is fashionable at a par@cular point in @me con@nues to be required in order to promote commodi@es and sell ideals of apparel and appearance. Fashion photographys role in this process is equally codied, as it has to play by (and innovate or subvert) fashions present and constantly changing codes. This in turns allows the photographer to use the genre of fashion photography to import ideas from other elds of image making and adapt it to the requirements of the style industry. Here, the func@on of the portrait becomes a measure for the amount of subjec@vity and individual expression that the respec@ve, contemporary state of fashion allows.

Thank You!