+ masters of style

Architects of Glamour
+ MASTERS OF STYLE
Excerpts from a Century of Fashion Photography
Education resource
Works by International and Australian fashion photographers and renowned
couturiers are displayed in ‘Architects of Glamour + Masters of Style: Excerpts
from a Century of Fashion Photography’.
Students can witness the changing icons, images and styles that make up
the history of fashion, as captured by the great photographers of the day.
Costume by the twentieth century couturiers Balenciaga, Dior, Dessès and
Courrèges, are displayed alongside photographs that reflect the elegant,
street-smart, or subversive contexts in which these gowns were worn.
Four discrete sections are explored: The emergence of fashion photography
during the 1920s (Rampway); Pre-World War II and 1950s elegance (Corrs
Chambers Westgarth gallery); 1960s – 80s emergence of street wear and
youth culture (William Angliss gallery); and contemporary vision of the 1990s
(hallway).
Areas of interest for students:
• Changing styles of photography + fashion;
• Portraiture + fashion;
• Lighting + design;
• The effect of location (eg. outdoors versus the studio);
• Photographic + artistic techniques;
• The impact of colour photography;
• Gender, sexuality and body image;
• Digital developments in contemporary photography.
Robyn Beeche born 1945
Australia, lived and worked in Great Britain and India
Sonia 1983
Direct positive colour photograph, 51.3 x 50cm
Purchased 1984
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Style
Horst P. Horst 1906-99
Born Germany, lived and worked France and United States
Coco Chanel 1937, printed 1982
Gelatin silver photograph on paper, ed. of 50
Purchased 1982
Reproduced with permisssion of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Marcus Leatherdale born 1952
Canada, lived and worked in United States and India
Larissa: costume by Issey Miyake 1983
Gelatin silver photograph
Purchased 1984
Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Architects of Glamour + Masters of Style’ explores how styles in clothing, beauty, the representation of women and techniques of photography have changed
over a century. The two black and white photographs of women (above) show some similarities (eg. the women are both smoking, something that is banned
in advertising today), but there are several differences that relate to the creation of ‘style’. The woman on the left is Coco Chanel who created the ‘little black
dress’, the perfumes and the suits that bear her name. She was a maker of style, and her ‘look’ was copied for decades. On the right is a fashion model,
Larissa, wearing clothes by Issey Miyake. Who would be the maker of style in this photograph? There seems to be a battle between the model, the gown’s
designer and the photographer, whose unique photographic style captures the moment. Who do you think wins the battle?
Body image
While fashions have undoubtedly
changed over the past hundred years,
so have the body shapes on which
those fashions are worn. Compare the
image on the left of Doris Zinkeisen
taken in the 1920s to that of Naomi
Campbell in the 1980s.
Look at each model’s appearance –
the looks on their faces, how they are
facing the camera, the image they are
trying to project, their jewellery and
make-up – along with the clothes they
wear. What differences can you notice?
How would you describe each model?
Look at the techniques that the
photographer has used to capture
each model’s image: the quality of light
and tone, the lighting and focus (eg.
soft focus or crisp edges). Look at the
background, what is the photographer
revealing to us by placing the model in
these environments? How does this
affect our impression of the models?
Harold Cazneaux 1878-1953
Born New Zealand, lived and worked in Australia
Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background 1929
Gelatin silver photograph
Gift of the Cazneaux family 1975
Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Bettina Rheims born 1952
France
Naomi Campbell 1988
Gelatin silver photograph
Gift of Edron Pty Ltd – 1996 through the auspices of Alistair McAlpine
Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Femininity and the post-war era
Immediately after the Second World War, women’s
fashion lost its practical, austere look and became
increasingly feminine. The female figure was
emphasized and gowns used copious amounts of
fabric – unheard of in the previous decade where
many commodities were rationed.
In Cecil Beaton’s Charles James evening dresses,
none of the austerity and privation associated with
the war is evident. Models are posed in an exquisite
eighteenth-century
interior.
The
gowns
are
constructed from the most luxurious and beautiful
fabrics and display slight variations in design. Each
model likewise exhibits a slight variation from an
‘ideal’ construction, her ‘hourglass’ body shaped
according to fixed criteria of beauty, gender and
fashion, typical of the new femininity in the post-war
1940s.
Critical of fashion photography’s fabrication of ‘the
cosmetic lie that masks the intractable inequalities
of birth and class and physical appearance’ Susan
Sontag suggested that, ‘[b]y setting his subjects . . .
in fanciful, luxurious decors, Beaton turns them into
overexplicit, unconvincing effigies’. 1
Would you agree with Sontag’s comments?
Cecil Beaton 1904-80
Great Britain
Charles James evening dresses 1948
Gelatin silver photograph
Purchased 1981
Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth,
UK, 1986, pp. 44, 58
Icons
‘Architects of Glamour + Masters of
Style’ displays images of fashion icons
– people who have influenced
fashion – alongside the fashions that
they wore.
Edward
Steichen’s
dramatic
photograph of dancer Isadora
Duncan
(left),
famed
for
revolutionising dance in the early
twentieth century, directly refers to
the dancer’s fascination with Greek
antiquity, the architectural pinnacle
of which is the Parthenon. Duncan
often danced in bare feet and in
loose clothing, which was extremely
radical at the time. Her approach
contributed to the emergence of
unstructured and loose clothing of
the 1920s.
Edward Steichen 1879-1973
Born Luxembourg, lived and worked in United States
No title (Isadora Duncan at the portals of the Parthenon) c.1921
Gelatin silver photograph
Purchased 1980
Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Irving Penn intentionally placed his
well-known model – the infamous but
extremely fashionable Duchess of
Windsor (right) – in a corner, without
any decorative background. Penn’s
photograph conveys not only the
importance of women to fashion, but
also that it is the photographer’s
image that helps define their
importance. Without the photograph,
there would be no enduring icon.
Irving Penn born 1917
United States
Duchess of Windsor, New York, 27 May 1948 1948
Gelatin silver photograph
Purchased 1989
Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gender
During the 1970s gender – what makes us
accepted as masculine or feminine – was
investigated in music, art and fashion. Musicians
David Bowie, Elton John and bands such as Kiss
used make-up and costume to challenge
gender stereotypes.
Many of the photographs taken at the time
reflected society’s fascination with transvestism,
homosexuality and sexual motifs.
The rise of feminism and women’s increasing role
in public life raised lively discussions on gender
and power. Men’s suits came to symbolise
patriarchal power and, for a time, fashions
focused on this idea. Alec Murray’s photographs
of
Veruschka
played
on
the
model’s
chameleon-like ability to ‘lose’ herself in
character, like an actress, yet remain
recognizable even when dressed as a man.
Many contemporary artists, performers and
musicians investigate ideas of gender in their
work. Can you think of any? What kind of makeup, clothes or design would add to or detract
from their image?
Architects of Glamour + Masters of Style:
Excerpts from a Century of Fashion Photography
Presented by QUT Cultural Precinct
and Bligh Voller Nield
Exhibition dates
Queensland University of Technology Cultural
Precinct • Art Museum
27 June – 7 September 2003
All works are reproduced with permission of the
artists, their assignees or beneficiaries.
Photographs courtesy of the Art Gallery of New
South Wales, Sydney, National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
QUT Art Museum is proudly sponsored by
Kay and Robert Bryan, Diana Gibson, The Lee Foundation
Alec Murray 1917-2002
Born Australia, lived and worked in Great Britain
Veruschka. Advertising campaign for 'Dormeuil Freres' c.1970
Type C colour photograph, 35.4 x 25.7cm
Gift of the photographer 1987
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
CRICOS No 00213J