I was getting ready to critique an image, and the more I tought, I decided to post these thoughts before I get on the plane to the Mansion in Maryland with Playmate Holley Dorrough--yeah, you guys headed to the Mansion shoot this weekend are in luck! I also want to try out this article system designed to have a place for informative articles with feedback.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch--The images I was going to critique on this forum were posted as fashion, but they weren't in my opinion, far from it, more glam than anything. I'm not saying the photography was bad, I just didn't think they were fashion. So let's look at fashion and glamour, glamour and fashion today.
While there are several differences between the two genres, normally in fashion photography the model looks away or in another direction from the camera lens, not at the camera. Why? Because when someone looks at you, you naturally look back--if I'm trying to sell a clothing line, I don't need my models making eye contact with potential buyers, I need the buyers looking at the garments, accessories, etc., not the model's eyes. The idea is to sell a product, in this case clothes, not the model.
There are a few exceptions and you seem to see it on almost every cover of fashion mags today, I like to call this style of photography, flamour. Victoria Secrets is famous in their marketing strategy over the years as they use (and still use) "flamour" or "glashion." This new flavor of photography also evovled more with designers like bebe, DKNY, Juicy Couture, A&F, etc. and magazines like Maxim, Stuff, FHM, and others have helped propel it even further.
It's not uncommon today you hear models claim they want to be Victoria Secrets or Maxim model more than a fashion or Playboy model. Today it's about the glamour in modeling, not the modeling--just ask Paris Hiltion.
I always recommend models and photographers alike study "fashion catalogs" as well as fashion magazines to see what's in style or the trend.
Things change all the time and personally I feel that flamour is the full circle of the roots of glamour and fashion in our time. When you look at the history of glamour you'll see that it's early roots date back to the days of Ruth Harriet Louise and MGM (1920's), Hollywood used glamour to glamorize or make their stars shine and shimmer in the public's eye. These images would show what was in "fashion" as people paid attention to clothes, hats, jewelry and even hair styles of these much (back then) publicized celebrity images--that's where fashion photography really evovled in the public's eye and it's come back full-circle today as you see the more flamour style images on covers once graced by Super Models.
Even Jennifer Anniston's cover shot for Vanity Fair, think it was the Sept. 05, protrayed her in a flamour style of images that leaned more to glam than fashion. She's an actress, not a fashion model, like most people on the cover today. This is one reason you see more celebrities on the covers of fashion and other magazines today, great PR (public relations)--glamour started with them and now it's full circle--instead of movie posters and movie propaganda, they are on the covers of the top-circulated fashion, tabloids, rag mags, sometimes even Physcology Today and Playboy.
I think the last time I saw a fashion model (the super model type) on the cover of a magazine was when Kate Moss was protrayed for her cocaine use about the same month Anniston was on the Vanity Fair cover. Or was it Naomi for slugging someone? Not to mention, even Playboy rarely runs a Playmate on their covers anymore, though they broke this year's norm for the Oct. issue.
Today supermodels are not as known as back in the days of Brinkley, Campbell, Crawford, Klum, Macpherson, Moss, Shields, Shiffer, Tiegs and Twiggy--instead it's Anniston, Diaz, Duff, Hilton, Holmes, Longoria, Lopez, Lohan, Jolee, etc., but just ask anyone who's on the latest covers of magazines on the newsstands at the airport or local grocery store and they can rattle off the latter names with no problem
Again fashion is about what the model is modeling, glamour is about the model and she can use fashion to compliment her looks or set the tone of her mood or personality in an image. Back to Victoria Secrets, they helped start a trend into the flamour form of photography. Their photographers would capture glamour images as well as fashion images of their models. The idea was, to illustrate part of their catalogs with fashion shots and the other part was to glamorize the models so they would become (celebrities in thier genre) household names--people (younger women) would then associate their models with their brand--and it works.
Many potential models will tell you today they either want to be in Maxim or be a Victoria Secrets model. You hear less about being a Playboy model, less about being a Cosmo model, less about being a Ford model (in words contextually). Ever seen a Hometown Hotties contest in Cosmopolitain? or in [/i]Elle[/i], or W, or Vanity Fair? Almost every gal I run into, even those that don't know I'm a photographer will say I want to be a Victoria Secrets or Maxim Model nine times out of ten.
Now that is some history and my personal thoughts,not a critique. My idea is remind photographers to know what you are shooting, understand what is in fashion, what your client's ultimate goal is, etc., not what the photographer may want. Know your end result. If your client is the model and she want's herself photographed, it's glamour, unless she asks you to shoot her fashion portfolio. (BTW, most headshots are "glamour" and not fashion--those you see in portfolios and even fashion model compcards. Ever see a model's compcard headshot where she didn't make eye contact with you?) If your client is a fashion designer--sell the clothes with your images, not the model, unless you're shooting for Victoria Secrets and then you do both in one shot.
Now I want to see how this system works, so if you can provide feedback, it would be greatly appreciate. Let's get this article going. What do you think about this? Give us your thoughts.
Thanks for being a part of the G1 community and family, wishing you the best, some of my flamour photography below rg sends!
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