5 fashion photographers you should know

In the last week, New York has played host to a couple of big events. They both starred some real beauties, they both wowed their audiences and they both got people breathless in anticipation. Ours finished after just a day. Now, the other, New York Fashion Week is drawing to a close, too. In homage to it, we’ve taken a closer look at the photographers who put fashion on the map.
Richard Avendon (1923-2004)

For many people, Richard Avedon is the absolute Godfather of fashion photography and the single biggest influence in the genre over the past 30 years.

Once likened to the ‘…white mechanical rabbit that all other photographers are trying to catch up with…’ Avedon spent over 40 years providing images for top clients including Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. His style and capability to move effortlessly from studio to street whilst still creating elegant and sophisticated photographs left others trailing in his wake. Quite simply work that everyone should get to know.

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991)

Bourdin’s colourful, erotic and controversial images were a giant leap forward in what constituted acceptable fashion photography.

Heavily influenced by the Surrealists (with touches of Edward Hopper along the way), Bourdin began working at French Vogue as early as 1955. However, due to his own reluctance to promote his work or accept offers for publications and exhibitions, he has only posthumously gained wider notoriety.

Bourdin was notoriously difficult to work with. Legend has it that he kept Ursula Andress posing on a table for six hours while his assistants searched for a shade of roses that matched her skin tone! Oh, and he once turned up at Vogue’s Paris office on a camel too! Now that is surreal!

David Bailey (b.1938)

It’s England. It’s the 1960s.  You’re working for British Vogue and rubbing shoulders with everyone from Mick Jagger to Ronnie Kray. London is officially the swinging city and you’re bang in the middle of it…. Yep, David Bailey was certainly living the life. (So much so that Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blowup is largely based on Bailey).

Although widely known for his high contrast black and white studio shots, Bailey’s rise to fame came from the challenge he presented to the traditionalists: shooting with models no one else wanted and in places and positions no one thought would work, Bailey carved an impressive niche for himself.

Despite his exceptional vision, Bailey never forgot the bottom line of the industry: ‘I’m here to sell frocks…’

Terry Richardson (b.1965)

Terry Richardson: One of the best fashion photographers in the world? No, probably not. But, in the past ten years it has been increasingly difficult to avoid his work or those who are clearly trying to emulate it.

With campaigns for Sisley and American Apparel and models that include Kate Moss and Samuel L. Jackson, Richardson’s images have the look of hastily grabbed snaps made with low tech equipment. And not without good reason; many are shot with a simple point and shoot Yashica. Richardson is never far away from controversy, so if you go searching for his work, be prepared for a shock. His view of the world is up close and very, very personal!

Corinne Day (1965 – 2010)

Corinne Day was a hugely important photographer both within the fashion industry and the art world. She is perhaps mostly famously known as being one of the first photographers to work with Kate Moss. Whilst it’d be difficult to credit her with discovering Moss, she was undoubtedly responsible for some of the most iconic images of the super model.

Her work was also foremost in the debate around what became known as ‘Heroin Chic’; the androgynous, pale, skinny and, perhaps, ill looking models that arose as a backlash against the overtly glamorous and voluptuous supermodels of the 1980s. Put simply, Heroin Chic was to fashion what Grunge was to music.

Every one of these five changed the way fashion photos are taken, but who do you admire the most? As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts.