Long outgrown are the days where imagery served merely as an advertising tool, as fashion photography has shed its commercial confines and blossomed into a lauded art form. Such growth owes much to photographers willing to pierce the lens to reflect their realities; what it holds, what it lacks, and what it strives for, in turn touching on common truths beyond their own. Their impact is best felt in London’s major 2024 summer exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, one that brings all those visionaries under one roof, side by side and rubbing shoulders.
Beyond Fashion narrates this tale and slices it into four themes: Allure, Fantasy, Realism, and Surrealism. Each section is housed in its own gallery, where all are graced by the works of luminary artists. Allure brings together celebrations of timeless beauty, Fantasy honours the inventive and creative minds of photographers working in fashion, Realism captures fashion as it interacts with the real world, displaying the efforts of street photographers, and Surrealism highlights the work of a new generation for whom fashion photography is about transformation, imagination, and magic.
The exhibition features more than one hundred images from almost fifty photographers, including Nick Knight, Willy Vanderperre, Ellen von Unwerth, Paolo Roversi, Juergen Teller (featuring his iconic image of Victoria Beckham’s legs inside a Marc Jacobs’ shopping bag), Miles Aldrige, Mario Testino, and Glen Luchford, alongside a fresh wave of fashion photographers like Coco Capitán, Maisie Cousins, Daniel Sannwald, or Kiki Xue.
This curated selection includes supermodels and stars like Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Christy Turlington, as well as designers such as Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Christian Dior and Comme des Garçons, and street style legend The Sartorialist. Additional highlights include a dedicated section on fashion film by SHOWstudio and an interactive installation exploring the narrative power of scent in fashion imagery.
The curator behind this exhibition is Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, with production overseen by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography. In the words of Herschdorfer: “At one time, fashion photography was perceived as limited to its commercial use. With the explosion of the internet and social media, the way photography is documented, consumed and shared has undergone a transformation. The emergence of a broader visual language has enabled a blurring of boundaries between editorial work, advertising and artistic expression within fashion photography. Nowadays, it is no longer regarded as a frivolous medium; it is elevated to the status of an art form, capturing the sustained attention of museums and galleries, auction houses and publishers alike. It is the art world’s rising star.”
As summer days stretch on but rain persists in gloomy London, you might as well seek shelter at Saatchi Gallery, with the exhibition on until September 8th, 2024.
