There seems to be a renewed interest in fashion photography. There are indeed quite a few events all over the world celebrating iconic images by famous fashion photographers: the Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin retrospective continues at Dallas Contemporary Gallery; Tim Walker 's "Story Teller" recently opened at London's Somerset House; Italy is currently celebrating with a collective exhibition at Turin's Ersel, Ugo Mulas, Alfa Castaldi and Pasquale De Antonis, while the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has just opened the exhibit “In Your Face”, in honour of Mario Testino.
Yet all these events are focused just on fashion photography, while it would be interesting to see an exhibition or an event/installation not necessarily focused on fashion, but incorporating iconic images by famous photographers who mainly worked in this field.
A perfect example is the installation by Mark Randel and Thomas Kupke at the 13th Venice International Architecture Biennale. Revolving around Tempelhof airport in Berlin, the installation explores its past and present history and the debates and controversy surrounding it.
The installation includes a selection of artefacts about the airport, from blueprints and grand floor plans to films by Philipp Oswalt and Sebastian Bleyl, from press reports to photographs and artworks.
The materials look at the design, construction and disuse of the airport, but also at the potential future of one of Berlin's most contested sites and at how the airport evolved from Nazi-landmark to location of the heroic Berlin airlift in 1948, suggesting that this place could actually be turned into a leisure landscape for the entire city.
The installation also features posters of fashion-related events held at the location such as Bread and Butter fairs and a 1965 gelatin silver print by F.C. Gundlach showing a model with the airport in the background.
The image - that also goes well with the recently released book about Gundlach, The Photographic Work, published by Steidl - proves that there is more behind fashion photography than just beautiful women and glamorous clothes, and that it would be really intriguing to see some fashion images (and Gundlach's are very inspiring architecture-wise) incorporated in events celebrating different disciplines, fields and themes including architecture, science or means of transport.
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Photography! That is the one thing in this world that I am dying to learn and to achieve more. This is my passion - photography. I have not sent any photo for a contest because I am afraid to fail.
Posted by: Dolores Sosa | January 29, 2013 at 02:41 PM