In fashion, as in life, they just don't make 'em like they used to.
Whenever i look at a picture by Richard Avedon I am struck by the energy that it exudes. Each and every one of them resonates with an infectious, powerful pulse. He captured energy unlike any other photographer working today, somehow his pictures (the bulk of which were in black and white) could transmit the movement, the grace, the actions with ease. It is a truth universally acknowledged that clothes look better in movement, it was Avedon who transferred that knowledge to photography, it was his models who started jumping in studios. It is his legacy that still exists in the pages of Vogue Us today.
Fashion photography today can have a staid feel to it, no matter the publication. Shock tactics and pushing the envelope are all very well, and work in their own ways. But there is something to be said for taking a leaf out of the masters books. Indeed, did not painters once study the 'school' of Rembrandt or Van Gogh in order to emulate their style? Out of reverence and, it must be said, out of acceptance that they were in possession of real mastery? There are those that hate the jumping in studio shots of US Vogue, but by god, when they are done well they look damn good. Clothes take on a far more powerful presence when they are on a body in movement. They billow, they unfurl, they pull taut, they swish, they kick up. Movement is life.
Perhaps its the spirit of the silly season, or perhaps its that full-bodied summer promise, but I can't stop looking at his photographs for their unbridled exuberance and passion. In the January issue of Vogue UK David Bailey wrote a tribute to Irving Penn, another great 'classical' photographer whose influence on fashion photography is resounding. He wrote that Penn's photographers were still and serene, and Avedon's were frenetic, passionate, imbued with something that Bailey could only identify as sex. Those clothes flying around, all that tousled hair, miles of legs... It's easy how someone can confuse that with sex.
It's actually exuberance. bright-eyed, wide-smiling exuberance. The best kind of energy, in my opinion. It's girls jumping around giddily, it's throwing back your head with laughter, not giggling politely or secretly. It's skipping down foreign streets, just because you can. No other model represents this kind of exuberance today, for me, than Karlie Kloss. She's got the grace of a dancer and the cheeky grin of a teenager. Haters can hate, but she's one of my favourite models today, and an Avedon girl through and through.
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