Photo: Markus Hippmann

À la mode – Fashion and Photography from Vienna

The works on display in the photography exhibition À LA MODE – Fashion and Photography from Vienna originate from a collaboration between the Photography School Vienna and the Fashion School Herbststraße. The students from the 4th semester along with staff from the Photography School Vienna have photographically accompanied the 2012 graduates of the Fashion School throughout the development process of their fashion collections. When the two art forms fashion and photography come together they pose, through interaction and cooperation, great creative potential. Through working and interacting with the human body and diverse forms of its concealment a huge range of motifs are provided, and numerous possibilities for staging are opened up to both the fashion designers and photographers. Jointly everyone benefits from this creative collaboration. The photographers can add to their portfolio interesting and unusual fashion photographs. The fashion designers are able to use the photographs to showcase their designs in the media and thereby promote their collections. In the interplay between fashion and photography sometimes it is the fashion itself in the foreground and sometimes the photography. The exhibited photographs illustrate in different ways the process of development, which the collections of the Fashion School Herbststraße undergo. They show the designers at work, the finished garments in the artist’s studio, as well as in the photography studio or during their presentation on the catwalk. Last but not least the photographers supply through their images a glimpse into the behind the scenes world of a big fashion show, which took place at the end of March 2012 in the Vienna Museum of Ethnology.

Photo: Nicolae Donat

Some of the exhibited works suggest as role models famous photographers like Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, or move in the footsteps of William Klein, a photographer who also uses his work to look behind the scenes of the fashion world. Since the early 20th Century fashion photography has existed as it’s own genre of photography. In the context of illustrated magazines, such as Harpeer’s Bazaar and Vogue, it was possible for an ever more sophisticated visual language to develop. It was at the latest during the 1950’s in which fashion photography was recognised as it’s own art form and it was able to increasingly establish itself. In the past few decades fashion photography has also arrived in museums and galleries, which reinforces the on-going discourse around this form of art work.

Photo: Barbara Dombovari-Tichy

Exhibiting Photographers:

Andreas Svirak, Angelika Löffler, Barbara Dombovari-Tichy, Christine Nestler-Kenzian, Marianne Schnitzler, Markus Hippmann, Martin Hoffrichter, Nikki Harris, Nicolae Donat und Sonja Bachmayer.

Photography exhibition in PhotoQuarter Vienna
Schlössl Kino, Margaretenstraße 127, 1050 Vienna

Opening: Friday, November 1st, 2012, from 8pm

Opening Hours: June 4-June 14, 2012 (except June 7, 2012)
Monday to Thuryday: 4:30 pm-6:30 pm

Admission free

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