Threads: Six Masters of Fashion Photography

It seems like it was only recently that fashion photography was acknowledged as an art form. But even so, it is not often featured in gallery shows and it was by chance that I stumbled across a show called Threads: Six Masters of Fashion Photography at the Diemar/Noble Photography Gallery in London. On display and for sale was the work of six fashion photographers including:

Edwin Blumenfeld
Guy Bourdin
William Klein
Helmut Newton
Norman Parkinson
Edward Steichen

This coherent and elegant presentation of iconic black and white images from six masters of light and composition is well worth a visit. Highlights of the exhibition include
Polaroids by Helmut Newton
One of two known prints of Guy Boudrin's photo of a model wearing a hat in front of gutted rabbits in the now infamous ‘Chapeaux – Choc’
A rare group of vintage prints by Norman Parkinson
Rare Surrealist fashion images by Erwin Blumenfeld

There is no charge to see the exhibition and it was a real delight to see such exquisite work up close without having to jostle for elbow room in a crowded museum.  If the gallery owners hadn't been so deep in conversation, I would have asked them why they didn't include a  female fashion photographer like Lillian Bassman in the show. (And if I wasn't so shy, I might even have handed over a business card - sigh!)

Threads: Six Masters of Fashion Photography
Diemar/Noble Photography
May 13 - July 11, 2010
66/67 Wells Street
London, UK    W1T 3PY
44 (0)20 7636 5375
email:  rsvp@diemarnoble.com

In High Fashion: Edward Steichen at the AGO

Catalogue Cover, Photograph of Actress Mary Heberden 1935 by Edward Steichen

The AGO is the one of the last stops of the exhibition "Edward Steichen: In High Fashion" which presents a collection of his black and white photographs from the Conde Nast archives 1923-1937. As the chief photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue during these years, Edward Steichen was instrumental in defining fashion photography and celebrity portraiture. Using light and shadow to delineate his subjects in striking backdrops, Steichen drew on his training as a painter to create arresting compositions of his subjects and is considered the "first truly modern fashion photographer".

I was entranced by the 200 Steichen photographs on display. Exquisite in their execution, the collection leaves no doubt as to Steichen's talent and sophisticated range. Although Steichen also made colour photographs, only black and white images are on display, giving the exhibition a clarity and elegance.

Given my own recent confusion as to the next steps in my artistic path, I found it interesting to learn that Steichen had been a painter before taking up photography. In spite of his successful shows at prestigious galleries as a painter, he had "serious misgivings about his talents with the brush" and was aware of "not having kept pace with the modern styles of painting." Walking away from a medium that he was comfortable with into the relatively new world of photography must have been a challenge to say the least.

The exhibition runs until January 3, 2010. Keep your AGO ticket and show it at the ROM to save 20% off general admission for the Vanity Fair Portraits exhibition.

Art Gallery of Ontario

317 Dundas Street West

www.ago.net