Father of Fashion Photography – Edward Steichen

Art

24 Jan

Model Marion Morehouse in a bouffant dress and actress Helen Lyons in a long sleeve dress by Kargère, 1926Art Deco fashion and photography – two loves of mine – meet gloriously in the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion, which comprises over two hundred photographs and over thirty garments.

Edward Steichen (1879–1973), an American photographer born in Luxembourg, bought his first camera in 1895 at 16 out of curiosity: a secondhand Kodak box ‘detective’ camera. By 1903, until 1917, he was the most frequently featured photographer in the groundbreaking magazine Camera Work. Steichen’s photographs of landscapes and portraits hover between ethereal beauty and sculptural studies rendered in light and shade, though this exhibition focuses on his work in fashion, which had its inception in 1911.

On George Bahers yacht: June Cox wearing unidentified fashion; E. Vogt wearing fashion by Chanel and a hat by Reboux; Lee Miller wearing a dress by Mae and Hattie Green and a scarf by Chanel; Hannah Lee Sherman wearing unidentified fashion, 1928Actress Carlotta Monterey wearing a diamond head bandeau by Cartier, and a white ermine wrap with a white fox collar, 1924Steichen was encouraged by Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, to promote fashion as a fine art through the use of photography. His subsequent photos of Paul Poiret’s gowns for the magazine Art et Décoration are regarded as the first modern fashion photographs ever published – he went on to become the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. His work turned fashion photography on its head, and influenced generations of photographers after him.

Model Marion Morehouse (left) and unidentified model wearing dresses by Vionnet, 1930The graceful, flowing lines of the fashion of that era between the wars encapsulate sartorial elegance for me, and many of the garments of that time (especially those on the more minimalist side) still look effortless and modern today, nearly a hundred years later. The garments chosen to accompany Steichen’s visionary pictures are suberb; perfectly curated; and can only make one gasp and marvel at the imaginative designs and construction; at the incredible detail of decorative beading. They bring Steichen’s photographs into brilliant life.

Model wearing a shawl of crepe de chine painted by Russian artists, 1924Princess Nathalie Paley wearing sandals by Shoecraft, 1934There is also a short documentary film in the exhibition showing Steichen working in his studio (complete with a gaggle of editorial onlookers), giving a fascinating insight into the working methods of one of the first fashion photographers of the twentieth century. One cannot be but struck how very different it was from today, how much effort was expended to achieve certain effects, and how we take for granted what is possible today. And yet in spite of the limitations, Steichen’s entire oeuvre of photography is sublimely beautiful and must still remain amongst the greatest works in the history of photography.