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A FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY ICON
STEVEN MEISEL KYLIE NORTON
PROJECT DISCRIPTION For this project I chose to research the fashion photographer, Steven Meisel. I looked into his career and the different photos that he took over the years in fashion photography. Taking all this information into account, I then created a magazine article that showed his works over the years, and I designed the layouts to reflect the style that he exemplified through his works.
KYLIE NORTON
STEVEN MEISEL A FA SH ION PHOTOG RAPHY ICO N
“Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aestheic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories”
Steven Meisel was born 1954 is an American fashion photographer, who obtained popularity and critical acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex. He is now considered one of the most successful fashion photographers in the industry, shooting regularly for both US and Italian Vogue, and lately W. Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories. Fashion photography has been in existence since the earliest days of photography. In 1856, Adolphe Braun published a book which contains 288 photos of Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione, a Tuscan noblewoman at the court of Napoleon III. The photos depict her in her official court garb, making her the first fashion model. From 1939 and onward, what had previously been the flourishing and sizable industry of fashion photography all but stopped due to the beginnings of World War II. The United States and Europe quickly diverged from one another. What had previously been a togetherness and inspired working relationship divulged as Paris was occupied and London under siege. Paris, the main fashion-power house of the time quickly became isolated from the United States—especially with French Vogue shutting down for a brief hiatus in 1940.[4] With these changes, the photography based out of the USA gained a distinct Americana vibe—models often posed with flags, American brand cars, and generally just fulfilling the American ideal. What did remain of the French and British fashion photography on the other hand often had a wartime overlay to the content. Cecil Beaton’s ‘Fashion is Indestructible’ from 1945 displays a well-dressed woman viewing the
rubble that once was Middle Temple in London. Similarly, Lee Miller began taking photos of women in Paris and London, modeling the latest designs for gas masks and bicycling with pincurlers in their hair, as they did not have electricity with which to curl their hair.[5] Images such as these remain scarred into the face of fashion photography of the time and display a common sentiment among the fashionable world and the public. Even fashion photographers worked to document the issues surrounding and work towards a documentation of the time—even if within the frame of fashion. These photos are an especially good indication of the fashionable emotions of the time. Many felt that fashion photography, during wartime especially, was frivolous and unnecessary. Yet, the few who worked to preserve the industry did so in new and inventive ways throughout the duration of the war. In postwar London, John French pioneered a new form of fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving natural light and low contrast. After the deaths of Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Francesco Scavullo and Herb Ritts, some of today’s most famous fashion photographers are Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh and Annie Leibovitz. He was born in 1954. His fascination for beauty and models started at a young age. At that time Meisel would not play with toys, but would instead draw women all the time. He used to turn to magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar as sources of inspiration for his drawings. Meisel dreamt of women from the high society like Gloria Guinness and Babe Paley, who personified to his eyes the ideas of beauty and high society. Other icons were his mother and his sister. As he became obsessed with models such as Twiggy,
Veruschka, and Jean Shrimpton, at 12 years old he asked some girlfriends to call model agencies and, by pretending to be secretaries of Richard Avedon, to get pictures of the models. To meet famous model Twiggy, the 12-year-old Meisel stood outside waiting for her at Melvin Sokolsky’s studio of Art and Design and Parsons The New School for Design where he attended different courses but, he majored in fashion illustration. One of Meisel’s first jobs was to work for fashion designer Halston as an illustrator. He also taught illustration parttime at Parsons. Meisel never thought he could become a photographer. He admired photographers like Jerry Schatzberg, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Bert Stern. He felt that illustration was a thing of the past and found photography as a lasting medium. Later on, while working at Women’s Wear Daily as an illustrator, he went to Elite Model Management where Oscar Reyes a booker who liked his illustrations allowed him take pictures of some of their models. He would photograph them in his apartment in Gramercy Park or on the street: on weekdays he would work at Women’s Wear Daily and on weekends with the models. One of them was Phoebe Cates. Some of these models went to castings for Seventeen magazine to show their portfolios which held some of his photography and the people at Seventeen subsequently called Meisel and asked if he wanted to work with them. Meisel works for different fashion magazines, including US and Italian Vogue, in which he has photographed every cover for two decades.
Meisel has contributed photos for the covers of several popular albums and singles, including two RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Madonna’s 1984 album “Like a Virgin” and Mariah Carey’s 1995 album Daydream. His work also can be seen on the cover of Madonna’s single “Bad Girl” (a nude), the limited picture disc for Madonna’s UK single release of “Fever” (a partial nude), and Mariah Carey’s single “Fantasy” (simply a different crop of the photo on the cover of the Daydream album). Amongst others, Meisel has shot campaigns for Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Calvin Klein (for whom his campaigns were very controversial). Meisel also shoots Prada campaigns each season — having done so since 2004. In April 2008 he shot friend Madonna for Vanity Fair, and later in the year he shot her for the 2009 spring campaign by Louis Vuitton. He is a close friend of designer Anna Sui for whom he also shot several campaigns, even though Sui rarely uses advertising to promote her clothing.
“illus tration was a t hing of t he pas t and found phot ography as a las ting medium...”
As one of the most powerful photographers in the fashion industry, Meisel is credited with “discovering” or promoting the careers of many successful models, including top models Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Nadège du Bospertus, Christy Turlington, Kristen McMenamy, Amber Valletta, Snejana Onopka, Iris Strubegger, Lara Stone, Coco Rocha, Caroline Trentini, Liya Kebede, Elise Crombez, Karen Elson, Doutzen Kroes, and Raquel Zimmerman, propelling them to fame by regularly featuring them in Vogue and various campaigns, notably Prada, considered one of the most desired campaigns in the business. Meisel’s influence and training seems to also extend past models. He used his influence among the fashion elite to create an issue of Vogue that would show only black models. He also launched the career of Ross Van Der Heide, a young fashion designer, by showing Ross’s artwork to Anna Sui. He launched the careers of many models and persuaded British model Karen Elson to shave her eyebrows off which earned her the nickname ‘Le Freak’ Meisel has been the force behind the careers of people he regularly used on his Vogue shoots; hairstylists Oribe Canales, Garren, Orlando Pita and Guido Palau, and make-up artists François Nars, Laura Mercier, Pat McGrath and the late Kevyn Aucoin owe some of their success to the photographer. Meisel has been a protégé of both Franca Sozzani and Anna Wintour, editors-in-chief of Italian and American Vogue, respectively. For the former, he photographs the cover of every issue, something generally unheard of in the ever changing fashion industry. Meisel often creates layouts which are controversial, by juxtaposing fashion and politics and/or social standards. For example, in the September 2006 issue of Vogue Italia’, Meisel played with the concept of restricted liberties post-September 11 America, with the models portraying
terrorists and highly trained policemen. It caused a stir in the press, as the models were presented in violent compositions where they could be seen as being victimized. It also elicited a negative response from feminists which saw the role of the women as being undermined by their male counterparts. The July 2008 issue of Vogue Italia featured only black models, and was entirely photographed by Meisel. It was a response to increasing criticism of racism in the fashion industry and became the best-selling issue in the magazine’s history. When asked about the issue, Meisel said, “Obviously I feel that fashion is totally racist. The one thing that taking pictures allows you to do is occasionally make a larger statement. After seeing all the shows though I feel it was totally ineffective. I was curious—because it received a lot of publicity—whether it would have any effect on New York, London, Paris, or Milan, and I found that it did not. They still only had one token black girl, maybe two. It’s the same as it always was and that’s the sad thing for me.” Meisel is notorious for rarely giving interviews or being photographed. However, in one of few cases, he was interviewed by Ingrid Sischy for Vogue Paris. The following year, Meisel agreed to be interviewed for 032c magazine by Pierre-Alexandre de Looz. De Looz’ piece, “Who Is Steven Meisel?”, was accompanied by a 14page fold-out retrospective of Meisel’s twenty years of covers for Vogue Italia.
“ Obviously I feel that fashion is totally racist.
The one thing that taking pictures allows you to do is occasionally make a larger statement.”
Steven Meisel-designed by Kylie Nor ton, Spring 2016 Printed at Jayhawk Ink on heavy weight Fonts: Didot and Futura Resources: Wikipedia.com
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KYLIE NORTON UNIVERSIT Y OF KANSAS