To mark the 40th anniversary of London Fashion Week, the Saatchi Gallery is exhibiting the work of nearly 50 leading fashion photographers who have challenged and redefined industry standards, pushing the boundaries of creativity.
Peter Lindbergh, Ellen von Unwerth, Viviane Sassen, Paolo Roversi, Miles Aldridge, Nick Knight, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino... The Saatchi Gallery invites us to a photographic feast with "Beyond Fashion". From the most iconic to the new, equally promising and innovative generation, including Jack Davison, Kiki Xue, Hanna Moon, Erik Madigan Heck and Koto Bolofo, this exhibition highlights their vision and creativity, documenting how fashion photography has shaped its visual language over time. A genre and discipline that today goes far beyond mere commercial appeal and the showcasing of brands, products, garments and clothing styles.
IN FASHION MANUFACTURING
The exhibition, curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, director of Photo Elysée in Lausanne, and produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, is divided into four sections: Allure (a celebration of timeless beauty), Fantasy (a tribute to photographers' creativity and inventiveness), Realism (street shots) and Surrealism (fashion between transformation, imagination and magic). These themes take visitors on a journey from the decor of the photo studio to the basics of street photography, for a plunge into the
vast and diverse forms of the fashion image. More than a hundred works are on show, featuring the most emblematic stagings of contemporary culture, from the covers of Vogue to shots from Marc Jacobs' cult campaign featuring Victoria Beckham's legs and head emerging from an XXL shopping bag, or the glamorous
imagery worn by the most popular supermodels (Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington). And let's not forget the anonymous images captured on the streets by street style legend Scott Schuman, behind The Sartorialist (blog and book).
FROM STILL IMAGE TO MOTION
A section is also devoted to films and videos, demonstrating the importance of image animation in the fashion industry, with creations from SHOWstudio, a site founded by Nick Knight, one of the first to adopt digital film as a presentation medium. The exhibition closes with the installation Under Your Smell. Students in the Bachelor of Photography program at the Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) invite the public to sit on enormous cushions on the floor and watch a visual interpretation of Jean Paul Gaultier's perfumes, which become the backdrop for transgressive stories. "These days, photography is no longer seen as a
frivolous medium," insists exhibition curator Nathalie Herschdorfer. "It is elevated to the status of art, attracting the sustained attention of museums and galleries, auction houses and publishers. She's the rising star of the art world."
"BEYOND FASHION" SAATCHI GALLERY
DUKE OF YORK'S HQ, KING'S ROAD, LONDON (ENGLAND)
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 8, 2024
SAATCHIGALLERY.COM
