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Photography and Styling for Fashion

Guy Bourdin was one of the greatest fashion photographers of all time.

His work is characterised by the creation of very powerful and original mise en scène,  innovative surrealist effects for his era: in this way he shifted the attention from product to image.

Bourdin's photographs show a dark and disconcerting side of reality, which until then had never been shown in the world of fashion photography.

Born in Paris on December 2, 1928, Guy Louis Banares was abandoned by his mother when he was just over a year old and was adopted by Madame Desirè Baurdin.

The traumatic experience of abandonment along with the shocking suicide of his historical girlfriends marked him complex relationship with women.

His ideal of beauty was a reconstruction of his mother's worth: a heavily made-up woman with red hair and a very pale face.

In 1950 he met the surrealist artist Man Ray, who became his mentor, of whom he was strongly influenced in style.

His first fashion shoots were published in the February 1955 issue of  Vogue Paris, for which she continued to work until 1987.

The elements that emerge from Bourdin's work are: surrealism, sensuality, provocation and often disturbing associations.

French Vogue, March 1972, a print by Guy Bourdin. 

As we can see in the photograph for Vogue, the model is lying on a large sofa in front of a prism mirror. There are elements that lead us to a luxurious atmosphere: the two champagne cups on the ground, the sumptuous and elegant suite setting.

The woman is lying on the sofa and appears intoxicated in an elegant version: she smiles, embraces the sofa and is elegantly dressed.

The mirror shows the backstory in all its facets: it radiates the image and amplifies it, breaks the woman's body as if in small frames. The fragmentation of the body in the mirror with references to surrealism, which highlights the sensations of intoxication, lastly the voyeuristic atmosphere that makes us bring photography back to the genre of boudoir.

The colours are in shades of pink, pale pink, beige, with a dark base that frames the bottom of the photograph: they are very feminine colours that refer us to a delicate and confected world, by Barbie.

The light is also soft, and the shadows are not sharp, but are multiplied by mirrors. The only contrast note is created by the black floor that frames below, the red of the hair.

The photographic lens used could be a lens between a wide angle and a normal lens, the 50 mm: we notice it from the perspective lines of the mirror that are not parallel but not too divergent with each other, which allows the radish created by the mirror, not to be too dramatic.

The composition plays on a slight diagonal created by the position of the model that has the head slightly unbalanced down from the feet. This slight diagonal creates a little destabilisation in our perception, it's like we feel the blood go a little to our heads. Another important element of the composition is the radiance in which the body is radiated to pieces of the model.

Visually these mirrors fall like blades over the model's abandoned body.

Guy Bourdin-, campagna per Charles Jourdan, 1979

In this second image created for Charles Jourdan's shoe campaign, the image appears simpler motion in his mise en scène.

We see a female body bent forward, and hidden in the upper torso and head, as if it had fallen. The background is created by two perpendicular floors in which the model falls.

Again we have a surrealist scene in which the model falls on the floor, but the choice of colours reminds us of a more "pop" and comic atmosphere, almost ironic, that goes to play down.

The female body of which we see only the legs appears as a mannequin, devoid of personality, and devoid of sensitivity: in fact the fall is a plastic pose, in which the model does not seem to feel pain; the legs are as stiff as those of a doll.

The set design used refers to a shop window, as well as the lighting, which creates more shadows on the yellow wall, and makes us think of a series of spotlights from above.

Again the lens used does not appear to be a wide angle, since the horizontal line of the floor is straight and not curved: almost certainly the photographer used an 85 mm.

There are three colours: black yellow and red.

These three colours, in nature, have a very specific meaning, which is reflected in our psychology: animals that have these three colours, (e.g. some snakes or salamanders) want to communicate to possible predators to be poisonous. So even in this photograph, although the model is at a disadvantage and may seem helpless it conveys a sense of danger.

The composition is built on the rule of thirds (in fact the model is located exactly in the lower third to the right): this, together with the right leg slightly raised parallel to the bust, creates a slight dynamism that contrasts with the static of the scene.

Again the scene is stolen from a story, rather than focusing on the product of the shoes. 

Vogue Paris, May 1970 

In the third image, we have a close up shot on the face of a model covering her gaze with her hands. Beyond her hands other hands overlap giving us the illusory effect that the model can be a kind of multiple-legged monster. The image may remind us of some monsters of Greek or Egyptian mythology. Here the predominant colour, besides that of the skin, is lacquered red, both nails and lips: the element of make up advertise. The red colour is in the psychology of perception, a sensual and aggressive colour at the same time.

The lens used is a telephoto lens (85 mm or 105mm) since the model's face does not appear crushed to the sides.

The composition is central and highlights the symmetry of the hands and its absurdity, apart from a small mole above the eyebrow that creates more pleasantness in the image.

Again we are faced with a surrealist image, aesthetically unexceptionable but monstrous and dangerous. Bourdin has perhaps been more influential on successive generations of fashion photographers.

Jeanloup Sieff  was a great master of photography. Despite his notoriety for fashion photographs, he has left memorable images that cross the most diverse fields, moving from fashion to advertising, from reportage photography to landscape and portrait.

Born in Paris, to parents of Polish origin on November 30, 1933, Jeanloup approached photography at the age of fourteen, when for his birthday he received a  Photax, plastic camera. After attending the Vaugirard School of Photography in Paris in 1953, he moved to the Vevey School in Switzerland. Here he began his career as a photographer as a reporter, obtaining the first awards for a service on strikes in the mines of The Belgian Borinage.

In 1958 he joined the Magnum Agency. In 1960 he settled in New York, where he worked for the most important fashion magazines:  Esquire, Glamour,  Vogue, Harper and Bazaar. Among the many prizes: the Prix Niepce,  Chevalier des Arts et Letters in Paris in 1981 and the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1992.

Sieff was an important reference for many photographers. A master with a unique style, essential and elegant. Images that are characterized by a pushed use of the wide-angle lens that gives an unmistakable imprint with ironic and sensual nuances.

Sieff's photographs develop with a strong contrast between lights and shadows, black and white with strong contrasts that reveal a great care during printing and the use of the techniques of masking, burning and vignette.

Darkening the edges of the image with the vignette, the photographer narrows the observer's gaze, emphasizing essences and details.

Harper’s Bazaar, 1963

In the fashion photograph depicted, we see a woman next to a bicycle, to which are hung boots, and in the background a beach.

The climate is that of an out-of-door bike ride on a beautiful sunny day, a serene climate that contrasts with a very complex image construction.

In this case we are faced with a black and white photograph, where the contrasts due to sunlight are strong. The construction of the story is defined by the strong relationship between the frame, the lens used and the composition of the image.

The vertical framing encloses the scene by framing the model and the bicycle from below, giving both of them a statuesque importance. The lens used is a wide angle pushed (17-20 mm) that goes to warp the proportions between objects: the ankle boots in the foreground, look huge compared to the figure of the model, as well as the bicycle that exceeds it in height. The woman, shot from below and with a wide angle, appears with very long legs, and the sinuous pose is enhanced.

The composition sees the bike wheel on the bottom right, on the third right, and frames the model with the handlebars. The latter is in an "s" pose that starts from the lower left corner, and ends with the head and gaze pointing towards the upper right corner.

All the elements in the foreground, despite the disproportion, still take on a certain importance thanks to the great depth of field used. Although the subject is close, thanks to the use of the wide angle and a fairly closed diaphragm (f8,f11), the subjects are all very sharp.

Like Bourdin, in the first image we saw, the elements are related to each other, and they create the narrative of a story. In this case, we do not have scabrous or dramatic elements, despite the photographer having made bold choices.

The fashion elements are in the foreground, and take a lot of part in the scene, while in Bourdin they were present but not dominant.

Pierre-Andrè Bountag snatching a model's photograph, Paris, 1966

The image depicts a man, whose hands we only see, while tearing up a photograph of a screaming model.

In the foreground is an outdoor lounge, perhaps in a terrace.

Again we have a black-and-white photograph with very strong contrasts. The construction of the story is entrusted above all to the articulated composition of the image: we have a trance de vie,  which is the frame for the model's photography.

Surely the photograph of the model screaming, and seems to notice the tear, was made previously in the studio, for the second shot. This denotes a construction of the story, very accurate just like Bourdin.

The composition sees in a flat promo a small table, the shape of which is repeated in the coffee saucer and in the cup, like water circles.

The hands of the director Pierre André Bountag, are arranged diagonally (from the top left to the bottom right) and contrast with the trend of the diagonal drawn by the model (from the bottom left, in the corner to the right of the photograph): an "X" scheme, which highlights friction and contrast.

The background of the trees is blurry, in the scene the movement is only suggested by the composition to "X", it does not appear moved, but not even frozen.

We are faced with a surreal but ironic scene, absurd but with realistic and simple gimmicks.

The photograph of the model has a very intense front light, like a beacon that locates it: you can see it from the shadow below it. As if the enemy had found her. Nevertheless, we note the fiction, so the drama is strongly muted. So, aggression may appear at first glance greater than Bourdin's photographs, but the redundancy of all these elements makes it a bit caricatured, and ironic.

Corset, New York 1962

In this third image of Jean Loup Sieff we see the figure of a bust of a woman cut above the knee, wearing a corset.

The composition is central and symmetrical. The arms rest above the hips and draw a rumble contrasting with the hourglass of the bust, highlighting its thinness.

Again we have a black and white photograph that allows us to focus on the shape.

If we compare it to Bourdin's close up, which portrayed as a harpy the face masked by the many hands, here the woman turns out to be more of a victim of fashion, forced in her breath. Here, too, we have a mannequin-woman, but passive rather than aggressive. The rigorousness with which it was photographed, is due to the neutral background, the soft light, the styling of the hands not obvious, a plastic pose, which refers to a very composed, controlled femininity, which follows certain rules, far from the unruliness of out-of-control women, aggressive and incomprehensible of Bourdin.

Surely the common point between these two photographers is the construction of a story and a story, but in Bourdin, the story takes over the fashion product, while in Jean Loup Sieff the product remains the protagonist and becomes the subject of the story told.

Among his most famous quotes by jean Loup Sieff: "The common denominator of all photos is always time, time that slips away between the fingers, between the eyes, the time of things, of people, the time of lights and emotions, a time that will never be the same again".