Beyond Fashion

Olivia Bee, Larsen, 2016 © Olivia Bee

Fashion magazines are not made to last. Every month there is a new issue with new images, new dreams to sell. One has to remember that fashion magazines produce hundreds of thousands of images to sell fashion. While flipping through these magazines, one surprising image can suddenly catch the eye. This image goes beyond the magazine whose purpose is to sell a garment and to inform potential customers. Here it is about a photographer’s vision, new aesthetics at play, a narrative that reaches far beyond fashion.

Anaïs Leu, Walk with Pierre Hardy, 2016 © ECAL / Anaïs Leu

Marton Perlaki, Female Torso, 2014 © Marton Perlaki

Ina Jang, A ball. The Cut / New York Magazine, 2013 © Ina Jang

Paul Jung, PJW508 Nº3946, 2015 © Paul Jung

Blommers & Schumm, Tanga Smoking, 2010 © Blommers & Schumm

At one time, the only place to see a fashion photograph was in the pages of a magazine or possibly stuck to the wall of a teenage girl’s bedroom; but things have changed, with museums holding major exhibitions, galleries and auction houses selling fashion images, and publishers constantly releasing new titles devoted to fashion photography. Removed from its original context (the magazine page), fashion photography is art’s rising star. The art world is much more accepting of fashion photography because museums have moved from high art to an all-embracing visual culture.

Peter Lindbergh, Milagros Schmoll, Paris, 2006 © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy Peter Lindbergh, Paris)

Nick Knight, Past, Present & Couture, Dior, 2001 © Nick Knight

Ellen von Unwerth, Rich Bitch, Paris, 2004 © Ellen von Unwerth

Miles Aldridge, Home Works #3, 2008 © Miles Aldridge

Miles Aldridge, Vogue Italia, 2002 © Miles Aldridge / Vogue Italia

Kiki Xue, Peking Opera, 2016 © Kiki Xue

For a long time, fashion photography was seen as exclusively commercial. However, contemporary photographers don’t necessarily conceive of their work as fitting into one single category or medium. In the 21st century, boundaries between editorial work, advertising work and personal work are now blurring. Digital media have changed the way photography is reported, consumed and shared. With the explosion of street-style blogs, Instagram and Pinterest, fashion photography has become the new visual language. No longer regarded as frivolous, it has been elevated to the status of an art form.

Koto Bolofo, Skin Deep, 2008 © Koto Bolofo

Sølve Sundsbø, Elena in Gaultier, Numéro #91, 2007 © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

The show includes the work of the most acclaimed fashion photographers today, such as Nick Knight, Paolo Roversi, Peter Lindbergh, Miles Aldridge, Ellen von Unwerth. It will also involve photographs and films of the new generation, Blommers & Schumm, Solve Sundsbo, Daniel Sannwald, Viviane Sassen or Erik Madigan Heck, all highly talented artists who are taking the lead in the years to come. The photographers brought together in this exhibition have looked anew at the potential of fashion photography and created an imagery that goes far beyond fashion.

Beyond Fashion
Curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer.
March 11 – June 4, 2023 / IPFO – House of Photography, Olten, Switzerland
Visit the exhibition page >

Previous Exhibitions:

ALT.1, Hyundai Seoul, South Korea
June 17 – September 25, 2022

Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, China
March 28 – June 27, 2021

Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China
April 17 – July 25, 2020

ArtisTree, Hong Kong
January 6 – February 24, 2019