Fashion Photography at the ICP
March 27, 2009 by Lauren LaRocca
Filed under New York, News, Photography
When it comes to museums in New York City the ones that most often come to mind are The Met, MoMa, and The Guggenheim, but have you ever check out the International Center of Photography? They currently have four exhibitions on display until May 3rd which any lover of fashion must see! The first exhibition, Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now, shows off some of the most ground-breaking in-your-face fashion photography created over the past two years. The exhibition displays original photographic prints, hundreds of tear sheets and magazine covers from both mainstream and independent publications – all from some of the most well known photographers in the game. Photographers include Steven Meisel, Cindy Sherman, Mario Sorrenti, Nick Knight, Steven Klein, Miles Aldridge, Paolo Roversi, and Sølve Sundsbø. Their work is created from a range of influences including art, sexuality, narrative, digital media, and youth culture. It also considers the impact of graphic design on the way that fashion photography is presented.
The next exhibition, This Is Not a Fashion Photograph, organized by guest curator Vince Aletti, features work mainly from the permanent collection of ICP that looks at the non-fashion sources of contemporary fashion photography. Featured photographers include Gordon Parks, Bruce Davidson, Walker Evans, Samuel Fosso, Doris Ulmann, Mark Cohen, Marc Riboud, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Ben Shahn. These photographers never had the intention to create fashion images, but they certainly captured individual style as a means of personal expression.
If you head downstairs, you will see Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, an exhibition of 175 works by Edward Steichen from the Condé Nast archives. Never before has any exhibition presented such a full range of Steichen’s fashion images. His detailed and highly styled work changed public perceptions of the American woman and revolutionized fashion photography. On exhibit are some of the most innovative examples of his fashion and celebrity portraitures created for Vogue and Vanity Fair. His work has been a tremendous influence on many photographers today, including Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Bruce Weber.
Last but not least, tucked away in a tiny room toward the back of the Edward Steichen: In High Fashion display is the exhibition titled Munkasci’s Lost Archive. This exhibition reveals the recent rediscovery of Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi’s long-lost negative collection. Munkacsi took photography to another level by creating vibrant images of models and athletes in motion. Munkacsi’s ground breaking work was created by the process of combining split-second timing and radical cropping. His distinctive approach to photography has inspired many other photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon. LAUREN LAROCCA
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