Written by Elliot Smedley, âEscaping to Reality: Fashion Photography in the 1990sâ explores how contemporary fashion photography is adopting realistic styles by using realistic activities contrary to ideal styles that had dominated art and photography for decades.
A shift from idealism to realism has kept in tandem with current socio-economic conditions that reflect consumerism. Realistic approach to photography has enhanced fashion photography because photographs appear alive with fascinating backgrounds that appeal to sight.
According to Smedley, spontaneous snapshots have realistic aesthetic value, which is critical in fashion photography because it gives greater realism and broader appeal (145).
Spontaneous snapshots capture mannerism, gestures, and looks of humans in natural settings; thus, have greater appeal, which is praiseworthy in enhancing commercial image and promoting consumerism culture. Therefore, spontaneous snapshots are valuable because they depict realistic pictures and activities, which are fashionable lifestyles of people in contemporary society.
Through realistic approach, fashion photography can portray current themes that are in society such as culture, sexuality, social class and feminism. Photography images can depict specific cultural values and activities that a given society practices.
In the 1980s, fashion photography depicted women as âsupermodelsâ because they reflected ideal beauty that paved way for realism in 1990s. Smedley argues that realism emerged in the 1990s because social class shifted from perceiving ideal models to keeping abreast with âspirit of the timeâ that shaped fashion photography (148).
Thus, realism became a dominant approach to photography because realistic styles in fashion photography appealed to many people. Additionally, feminism ideology liberated women and changed their depiction in fashion imagery from being mere sexual objects.
Documentary of fashion photography shows that the driving force of the fashion industry is commerce. Photographs have varied connotations that appeal to people and shape their attitudes and perceptions, thus influence tastes and preferences of people commercially.
Smedley asserts that fashion photography invites people into the private world of fantasy where consumerism thrives (152). However, the emergence of realism is significantly changing the commercial influence of ideal photography in terms of consumerism.
Works Cited
Smedley, Elliot. âEscaping to Reality: Fashion Photography in the 1990s.â Commonwealth of Australia, (n.d.): 143-156.