Sorry slightly later than previously advertised! The next instalment in your photography education adventure.
Guy Bourdin
Shocking. Stylised. Sinister. Master of fashion.
Guy Bourdin was a game changer in fashion photography. Before him, fashion photography used glamorous settings to sell the idea that 'if you buy this coat, then you too will have a beautiful, interesting life'.
Bourdin turned this notion on its head. Take the photo above (one of my favourite) showing a glamorous model at the ordinary location of a butcher's shop. His thoughts? Well, by buying this hat you won't transform your life, you will still need to go about your daily drudgery. BUT, you will be the best dressed person queuing up for your family's meat; Brilliant! Its hard to imagine now, but this was a shocking concept in its time. Another interpretation is showing that the model also as a piece of meat. A commodity for sale.
He never published his photographs in a book nor exhibited during his life, instead insisting that his photos were made only for magazines. With this in mind, he thought carefully about how to arrest the action of flicking through a magazine. Think of how opening up the pages of a magazine to see the first image below actually translates in to opening a woman's legs. Shocking, crude? Maybe, but it certainly would make you stop in your tracks and look further at the article or fashion shoot in question!
Look at the movement in this photo. Follow the mirrors round. On first reflection the image is relatively innocent, but as you follow the mirrors round you suddenly find that shockingly, you can see between the model's legs.
Appreciate the stylised nature of these photos. The colour, shape and forms. Remember, this was all achieved way before photoshop and digital prints!
What do you think? Do you think his photography is vile and tasteless or like me do you think that he is one of the most interesting photographers of the 20th century?
