In this week’s blog, the Costume Society’s News Editor Dr Babette Radclyffe-Thomas reviews the Saatchi Gallery’s fashion photography exhibition, Beyond Fashion.
Beyond Fashion features over 100 fashion images from 48 photographers including some of the world's most renowned such as Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi and Ellen von Unwerth, as well as a range of new emerging photographers.
The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland and produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/Paris/Lausanne in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery, London. The exhibition aims to demonstrate how fashion photography has moved past the simple presentation of product lines to reflect on ‘the reality of our lives’ with several images resembling fine art in comparison to what the viewer may expect from ‘traditional’ fashion photography.
“At one time, fashion photography was perceived as limited to its commercial use. With the explosion of theIinternet and social media, the way photography is documented, consumed and shared has undergone a transformation. The emergence of a broader visual language has enabled a blurring of boundaries between editorial work, advertising and artistic expression within fashion photography. Nowadays, it is no longer regarded as a frivolous medium; it is elevated to the status of an art form, capturing the sustained attention of museums and galleries, auction houses and publishers alike. It is the art world’s rising star,” says Nathalie Herschdorfer, Exhibition Curator.
The exhibition was presented during the milestone 40th anniversary year of London Fashion Week and previous venues of the exhibition include ArtisTree, Hong Kong; Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai; Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha; ALT. 1 Hyundai Seoul, South Korea; and IPFO House of Photography, Olten, Switzerland.
Beyond Fashion is spread across four sections, Allure, Fantasy, Surrealism and Realism, and features famous images including Peter Lindbergh’s iconic images of white-shirt clad supermodels shot in the 1980s, a selection of streetstyle images from one of the original fashion bloggers aka The Sartorialist, and a 2008 campaign shot of Victoria Beckham’s legs sticking out from a Marc Jacobs’ shopping bag.
The first section Allure explores celebrations of beauty as images of supermodels are hung against a striking pink background. The second section Fantasy focuses on the creativity and inventiveness of photography, and images are shown on a bright blue background. The third section Surrealism highlights a new generation of photographers who explore concepts of transformation and imagination and adopts the colour scheme of canary yellow. Next is a room dedicated to fashion film that focuses on the works of SHOWstudio, the website founded and directed by Nick Knight. The penultimate room is realism and it highlights realistic, street-style images on a red background, before the exhibition closes on a student-created installation filled with oversized beanbags.
The exhibition runs to 8th September 2024.
Babette recently reviewed an exhibition of Paolo Roversi's photographs at the Palais Galleria; to catch up visit her blog post.
Image gallery
Ellen von Unwerth, Rich Bitch, Paris, 2004 © Ellen von Unwerth.
Peter Lindbergh, Milagros Schmoll, Paris, 2006 © Peter Lindbergh Foundation (Courtesy Peter Lindbergh Foundation, Paris).
Daniel Sannwald, Camper campaign A/W, 2015 © Daniel Sannwald.
Miles Aldridge, Lookable Legs #1, 2002 © Miles Aldridge / Vogue Italia.
