Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
History of Fashion Photography
Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories.
Fashion Photography has been in existence since the early
days of photography. In 1856, Adolphe Braun published a book containing 288
photographs of Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione, a Tuscan noblewoman
at the court of Napoleon III. The photos depict her in her official court garb,
making her the first fashion model.
In the first decade of the 20th century, advances in
halftone printing allowed fashion photographs to be featured in magazines.
Fashion photography made its first appearance in French magazines such as La
mode practique. In 1909, Condé Nast took over Vogue magazine and also
contributed to the beginnings of fashion photography. In 1911, photographer
Edward Steichen was "dared" by Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Jardin
des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, to promote fashion as a fine art by the
use of photography. Steichen then took photos of gowns designed by couturier
Paul Poiret. These photographs were published in the April 1911 issue of the
magazine Art et Décoration. According to Jesse Alexander,
This is "...now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot. That is, photographing the garments in such a way as to convey a sense of their physical quality as well as their formal appearance, as opposed to simply illustrating the object."
This is "...now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot. That is, photographing the garments in such a way as to convey a sense of their physical quality as well as their formal appearance, as opposed to simply illustrating the object."
Vogue was followed by its rival, Harper's Bazaar, and the
two companies were leaders in the field of fashion photography throughout the
1920s and 1930s. House photographers such as Edward Steichen, George
Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton transformed the genre into an
outstanding art form.
In the mid-1930s as World War II approached, the focus
shifted to the United States, where Vogue and Harper's continued their old
rivalry. In 1936, Martin Munkacsi made the first photographs of models in sporty
poses at the beach. Under the artistic direction of Alexey Brodovitch, Harper's
Bazaar quickly introduced this new style into its magazine.
House photographers such as Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi,
Richard Avedon, and Louise Dahl-Wolfe would shape the look of fashion
photography for the following decades.
Richard Avedon revolutionized fashion
photography - and redefined the role of the fashion photographer - in the
post-World War II era with his imaginative images of the modern woman.
In postwar London, John French pioneered a new form of
fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving natural
light and low contrast.
Still life fashion
Still Life Fashion is a type of fashion photography devoted
to the photographing of clothing without models. Still Life Fashion has become
an important part of all fashion retailers' marketing and e-commerce
strategies, with studios devoted to the production of this particular
photography brand making up a considerable proportion of UK and Worldwide photography
businesses.
The Countess by Pierre-Louise Pierson, 1863/66
A modern fashion photograph by Inez van Lamsweerde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_photography
Herman Leonard
'Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to everything.' Plato
'There’s a way of playing safe, there’s a way of using tricks
and there’s the way I like to play, which is dangerously, where you’re going to
take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven’t
created before.'
Dave Brubeck
Jazz photographer Herman Leonard, who died on Aug. 14, 2010, photographed many of the greatest music stars of the 1940s and '50s.
Leonard was known for the smoky, backlit scenes he captured
of musicians in performance.
In 1948, Leonard moved to New York City and immersed himself
in the jazz scene. He made deals with club owners to photograph rehearsals in
exchange for prints they could use on their marquees.
Leonard said his intention was "to create a visual
diary of what I heard, to make people see the way the music sounded."
Later in his life, Leonard moved to New Orleans, where he
continued to photograph jazz musicians. Though much of his work was destroyed
in the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, his negatives were saved and
housed at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
After the tragedy of Katrina, Leonard went through all his
negatives and compiled a collection of the best images he could find, alongside
some of his well-known classics. A book of the resulting 320 images, called
Jazz, is set to be published in October 2010.
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| Frank Sinatra 1958 |
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| James Moody, 1951 |
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| Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, 1948 |
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| Dizzy Gillespie, 1948 |
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| Duke Ellington,1958 |
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| Dexter Gordon, 1948 |
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2011462_2178533,00.html
History of Architectural Photography
Architectural photography is the photographing of buildings and similar structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate representations of their subjects. Architectural photographers, are usually skilled in the use of specialized techniques and equipment.
Throughout the history of photography, buildings have been
highly valued photographic subjects, mirroring society's appreciation for
architecture and its cultural significance. By the 1860s, architectural
photography started to become an established visual medium.
Much as building designs changed and broke with traditional
forms, architectural photography also evolved. During the early-to-mid-20th
century, architectural photography became more creative as photographers used
diagonal lines and bold shadows in their compositions, and experimented with
other techniques.
By the early 1950s, architects were hiring more
photographers for commissioned work, resulting in architectural photography
being viewed as more of an art form.
Techniques
A tenet of architectural photography is the use of
controlled perspective, with an emphasis on vertical lines that are
non-converging (parallel). This is achieved by positioning the focal plane of
the camera at so that it is perpendicular to the ground, regardless of the
elevation of the camera eye. This result can be achieved by the use of view
cameras, tilt/shift lenses, or post-processing.
Traditionally, view cameras have been used for architectural
photography as they allow for the lens to be tilted or shifted relative to the
film plane. This allows for control of perspective, as well as a variety of
creative possibilities.
In a similar fashion to landscape photography, a deep depth
of field is usually employed so that both the foreground and background (to
infinity) are in sharp focus.
More recently, digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras
have been used in the field of architectural photography. These cameras also
employ detachable, tilt-shift lenses of varying (usually fixed) focal lengths.
Exterior and interior
Architectural photography is typically created from either
the exterior views of buildings, or in the interior of buildings. The
techniques used in each of these types of photography are similar, but do have
some difference and sometimes require different equipment.
Exterior
Exterior architectural photography usually takes advantage
of available daylight, or if performed at night, uses ambient light from
adjacent street lights, landscape lights, exterior building lights, moonlight
and even twilight present in the sky in all but the darkest situations.
In many cases, the landscaping surrounding a building is
important to the overall composition of a photograph, and even necessary to
communicate the aesthetic harmony of a building and its environment. An
architectural photographer will often include flowers, trees, fountains or
statues in the foreground of a composition, taking advantage of their ability
to help lead the eye into the composition and to its main subject, the
building.
Interior
Interior architectural photography can also be performed
with ambient light transmitted through windows and skylights, as well as
interior lighting fixtures. Frequently though, architectural photographers will
use supplemental lighting to improve the illumination within a building. Either
electronic flash "strobes" or incandescent "hot lights" can
be used.
Early architectural style photograph by William Henry Fox
Talbot, c. 1845
Images of modern architectural photography
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