Speaking of Snapshotty...

While we're talking about the snap shot aesthetic,

here a few examples from an editorial shoot

featuring model Natalia Vodianova,

but I am not sure who the photographer is.

(...not too much selling of the clothing happening here...?

I guess this is where the 'lifestyle' aspect chimes in.)

Snapshotty...

Jurgen Teller,

probably best known for photographing Marc Jacobs' advertisements,

is a contemporary fashion photographer who seems to really take that

Munkacsi 'action realism' /

Nancy Hall-Duncan's theory of everyone-partaking-in-a-fashionable-existence,

to a new level.

Some even say that his image making relates to that of a polaroid,

utilizing bright flash and everyday themes.

Horst P. Horst

"In the history of twentieth-century fashion and portrait photography, Horst's contribution figures as one of the most artistically significant and long lasting, spanning as it did the sixty years between 1931 and 1991."

The Gibson Girls, Vogue, 1948

Yves St Laurent in a garden, 1986

Coco Chanel, 1937

Ginger Rogers, 1936

Joan Crawford, 1938

(Wire hangers, anybody??)

Lisa as V.O.G.U.E., 1940

1936

1936

1937

Chanel Beauty, 1987

First Lady Nixon

(I LOVE THIS! color and all...)

"Horst's career can be said to have reached Old Master status when the world's most famous pop goddess, Madonna, created her celebrated hymn to classic fashion photography with her single Vogue in 1990. In the video directed by David Fincher, she posed as a recreation of Horst's most iconic fashion image, a model seen from behind, wearing a partially tied corset (seen above from 1939) made by Detolle."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z6ZruzGbF8

::: If you do not enjoy Madonna, simply fast forward to 4:25

to see the inspiration in action! :::

*****

All quotes: http://www.horstphorst.com/abouthorst.php

Martin Munkacsi

I realized that I could not leave Martin Munkacsi out of the group of innovative fashion photographers. Sport, portraiture, and fashion images were Munkacsi's trademarks. He gave life and vitality to photography, where past images remained static and stiff. Nancy Hall-Duncan, author of History of Fashion Photography, titled Munkacsi's genius-ness 'ACTION REALISM', stating:

"the photography was still glamorous,

but it was meant to appeal to a broader audience,

to appeal to the sensibility that you, too,

can partake of a fashionalbe existence."

"Henri Cartier-Bresson believes that one particular Munkácsi image launched him on his career as a photographer, it was the „the spark that set fire to the fireworks”: The photo in question shows three young black boys jumping in the cool waves on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, an incunabulum of photography. ...

In many of his publications, Richard Avedon cites Munkácsi as having inspired him, and in the 1950s dedicated the famous shot of the young woman jumping over a puddle, with umbrella held aloft (see below), to the Hungarian by way of homage. Avedon felt Munkácsi was his predecessor and wrote a moving obituary on him."

-http://www.deichtorhallen.de/418.html

...Someone who inspired both Cartier-Bresson

AND

Avedon...? Wow.

...hmmm...

"Photography is the art

of not pushing the button."

-Frank Horvat-

http://www.horvatland.com/index.html

Irving Penn update...

I'm trying to keep things fair,

but I REALLY wanted to include

these Irving Penn images I found...

(Group shot, much like the ones seen

on the foldout covers of Vanity Fair today.)

Beautiful and dark.

Richard Avedon

"If a day goes by without my
doing something related to photography,
it's as though I've neglected something essential
to my existence, as though I had
forgotten to wake up."
-Richard Avedon, 1970-
*****

Nastassia Kinski

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Dovima, 1955

Image for Harper's Bazaar, 1955

Sunny Hartnett, 1954

Ronald Fisher, "The Beekeeper", 1981

*****
"As a fashion photographer,
Avedon took human vanity to new heights
even human vanity never dreamed of.
As a portraitist,
he brought us all down to earth."
-Ted Thai for Time-

*****

• Born on May 15, 1923 in New York
• Died on October 1, 2004 at the age of 81
• 1945-65: Staff photographer for Harper's Bazaar
• 1947-84: Photographed French collections in Paris for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar
• Named one of the world's 10 greatest photographers in 1958 - Popular Photography Magazine
• 1966-90: Staff photographer for Vogue
• 1992: First staff photographer for The New Yorker
• 1993: International Center of Photography "Master of Photography" award

--The Richard Avedon Foundation--

www.richardavedon.com