Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Conde Nast

Description

Fashion photographs - glamorous, provocative, beautiful, accomplished, magical - have always been associated with some of the most famous names in the history of photography, such as Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Mario Testino. This has been the case since the beginnings of fashion photography in the early years of the 20th century: the great American photographer Edward Steichen took what were probably the first fashion photographs in 1911 and since then some of the most distinguished practitioners have turned fashion photography into an art form. For many fashion photographers it was the editors and art directors at Conde Nast publications, such as Edna Woolman Chase, Diana Vreeland and Alexander Liberman, who launched their careers. This book, accompanying a major international exhibition, looks at the early work by such luminaries as Horst P. Horst, Erwin Blumenfield, David Bailey, Guy Bourdin, Corinne Day, Deborah Turbeville and Solve Sundsbo as it appeared in the pages of Vogue, Glamour and other Conde Nast magazines. This creative collaboration has kept fashion photography - and Conde Nast - innovative and often challenging but always able to capture the style of the day. With unprecedented access to the Conde Nast archives in New York, Paris and Milan, the photography historian Nathalie Herschdorfer has gathered original prints as well as pages from the actual magazines to provide a unique opportunity to see the work of over eighty photographers right at the beginning of their careers. The book also features essays by Olivier Saillard, Director of the Musee Galliera, Paris and Sylvie Lecallier, Head of the Photography Collection at the Musee Galliera, together with an exclusive interview with Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia.

Nathalie Herschdorfer is Curator, FEP (Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography) and Director of the Festival Alt. +1000 in Switzerland. She has written a number of books amongst which are Afterwards and reGeneration.

'Breathtaking images ... A wonderful reminder that behind all the tantrums and egos, fashion and photography make the perfect marriage of two inspirational art forms' - Daily Mail 'The mark of a truly great fashion photograph? When it makes you shiver ... this new book shows the most sublime from the past 100 years. ... contemplating these pictures leaves your mind free to wonder over the extraordinary swings in the representation of women that have taken place through our recent history' - Sunday Telegraph 'An indispensable survey of the great Vogue photographers ... What makes this book so valuable is that it makes clear that the Vogue eye has been not only a great entertainment, but a true visual education' - Sunday Times 'A sumptuous study of the body as a work of art' - Observer 'Proves that great photography never goes out of style ... the most successful images on these pages - and many of them are the finest of their kind in the world - arouse a powerful response' - Independent