Fashion Photography

The fashion photography is a high pressured industry.  The shoots that come out are often very expensive. Fashion photography while mainly taken in a portrait style is differentiated only by the context in which the photograph is displayed. Portrait photography seem in either family/private albums or in galleries. Fashion photography is most commonly seen in the pages of fashion magazines Vouge, Elle etc. However some times these are always as clear. There are portrait head shots of editor, designers etc in the magazines and fashion photography can sometimes be seen in galleries.
Fashion photography was and is still used

Some of the problems that people find with fashion photography is that the image that ends up in the fashion magazine is altered, manipulated post-shoot in a program like Photoshop. These kinds of alterations are generally only seen in fashion, music and film photography, however in all photography there can be a bit of modding.

However the alterations that occur in fashion photography greatly changes the look of the model in the image, their faces are nipped and tucked, neck elongated, eyes made bigger etc this happens for both male and female models, see image below for an example.

Fashion magazines, Vogue, Elle etc would clear blemishes, add tan, the image would be airbrushed creating an more perfect looking image of the model, actor music,  however gossip magazines would leave the pictures as they are to highlight this and have caption lines underneath and puff words to grab the readers attention and  show the celebs looking more like everybody else.

Having the constant bombardment of the "perfect" man or woman, airbrushed, perfect hair and make up to the nines then altered. Some women from all around the aspire and wish to achieve this image of the "perfect" woman that the fashion magazine portray. However this has averse effect on women, it can lead to emotional problems and body issues such as anorexia and bulemia.


However this isn't just a issue for women, the constant ideal of the "perfect" man also has an effect on it's male audience. Male health magazines, having toned, tanned and good looking men as their front cover, promoting beautiful ripped men, leads to men having many of the same problems that women have.

The fashion photography that promotes the super skinny women or the super toned men to the point that the models are ill or pressured into this image. It can not be achieved by everybody, because some models have a high metabolism or have certain dietary carefully selected food and the size of their meals.

However there are some fashion magazine that are challenging the established views of having stick thin models everywhere. Italian Vogue (June 2011) had plus sized models (women that are sizes 10,12,14 onwards. Instead models that are size 4 and under) these models were on the front cover and show women of a more realistic size, being just a beautiful or being even more beautiful than super skinny models. I believe that it is better for many women's self confidence to see curvy models than tiny ill looking women.

There are some that criticise having plus sized models. They believe that this sets a bad example for women, that plus size models would lead women to lead unhealthy lifestyles. However I personally feel that stick thin models has lead women having so many problems and issues with their bodies trying to achieve this tiny size. I feel that plus size (which I think is ridiculous to call models of size 10 up, when they are a more natural size) is better in the long run as these women aren't obese, they are just a normal healthy weight.



Marilyn Monroe, one of the sex symbol of the 20th century was roughly a modern size 12. Below is a picture of her at her smallest, this is a much better image than that of stick thin models we have today.

















In fashion photography there can sometimes be a clash between the creative side, art directors and photographers, versus commercial side of fashion.











Cecil Beaton