Elliott Brown Jr.
Professor Deborah Willis
Culture, History, Imaging, and Photography Studies
December 6, 2011

Model as a Muse

In my short career as a conscious photographer, which stems back to my junior year of high school, I have noticed a decisive pattern in my selection of models for my photographs, which lend their selves to fashion specifically, or at least attempt to. While I have not yet developed a particular favor for the aesthetic of one model over the next, it is my experience that the best models, the most responsive, self-aware, intelligent models, are the ones in which I was able to fall in love with. My models usually being women, I could not photograph her if I could not establish some relationship with her that transcended the superficial. I had to spend time with my models, grow with them in some way and understand them, and them myself, to the point where I only needed to provide them with the most minimal of direction during the shoot, and the rest they were able to guide independently.

More generally speaking, the relationship between a photographer and those models who remain a distinctive presence in front of the camera amid the “make-up, hairstyling, and clothing being documented” (Koda and Kohle), is particularly fascinating in it’s ability to create additional layers of depth both within the assembled image and the ever-evolving idea of feminine beauty. Accordingly, photographers and designers have been able to portray their artistic visions within the framework of a model’s physical and mental intricacies, which, in practice, renders the model a muse. This title asserts the model as more than just a pretty face, and instead advances her as a creative influence, “the embodiment of fashion” (Cosgrave), and an individual image mindfully absorbed into a photograph, waiting to be disseminated to the eyes and minds of the public.

Due to it’s frequent commercial usage, editorial photography, more commonly known as fashion photography, is often overlooked as a fine art, a designation typically reserved for painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, and poets – the traditional artists. Moreover, fashion photography is frequently rivaled against more conceptual forms of photography, as the general consensus regarding the genre is that it acts as an exhibition for the work of the designers, the clothes, more so than it does the skill of the photographer. However, despite how demeaning this opinion becomes to fashion photography, “fashion aims to create its own world, a haven of glossy artifice in an otherwise matte existence [and, arguably] photography is all artifice, a collapsing of three dimensions into two. [Thus] who can deny they were made for each other,” (Feeney). Furthermore, it is just as disputable that fashion photography takes more of an interest in the lifestyle and possible narratives that the model and clothing create, therefore lending itself more to the social implications of the photographer’s artistry. Take for instance the emergence of Kate Moss, as precedented by Moss’ career-starting photographs (Fig. 1) in 1990, taken by emerging photographer Corinne Day for a spread titled “The Third Summer of Love” in the British magazine, The Face. Appearing in an astonishingly raw style, (the brand under which the clothes are made not even mentioned in the captions of the photographs), Moss pioneered the “repudiation of the physical ideals of the models in supremacy.” With the help of Corinne Day, who was interested in photographing fashion in a way that defied the “staling” elegance of the time, and other subsequent photographers, Moss, armed with her “edgy, street-influenced style”, was not only able to redefine the way the general public looked at women in images, but also the way in which designers looked at their own work. Therefore, the art of fashion photography extends to include, in addition to the designer, the thorough embrace shared between the model and photographer, ultimately fulfilling, alongside its commercial practice, both a psychological and aesthetic purpose.

While art and fashion may very well be described as beautiful, its physical attractiveness must not reign at the core of it’s being, unless of course it somehow contributes to the depth of the piece. In her performance piece “Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful”, Marina Abramović, a New York-based, Serbian performance artist, eerily chants the title of the work until she has destroyed her thick, black hair with a metal brush and comb and has exhausted her body by dancing, au naturel, and screaming. Through this performance, she insists that art must not concern itself with something as menial as being beautiful or not beautiful, as art, in this manner, is superficial and unsubstantiated. She instead asserts that art must be disturbing in the sense that it provokes further questioning and engages one in a conversation with others and his own mind. Art must be true, she says, which suggests that art must be based off of one’s own experiences and not the “pretense” of beauty. And, lastly, art must be a prediction of the future, meaning that art must be controversial in that it inspires change. Fashion photography is heavily embedded within sociological issues, and hence strives, at most every six months as the seasons change, to engage, provoke, and “shape public consciousness and attitudes,” (Tan) in innovative ways. Fashion’s most notable impression is not that it embodies beauty, (and not necessarily in a superficial way), but rather it dictates beauty through the evenly matched visions of the photographer, model, and designer – the holy trinity of fashion.

As put forward by Coco Chanel, “…fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Consequently, fashion photography has portrayed the evolution of fashion, most applicably in the years including and following the introduction of Christian Dior’s New Look in the February of 1947. When considering it’s famously acclaimed reception, the new line would appear that it revolutionized fashion. But, in fact, it looked back on fashion with a nostalgic eye and contained many dated characteristics. Dior himself remarked that he would not have deemed the launch groundbreaking and that the widely acclaimed reception of the work was due largely in part to it’s apt timing succeeding the dour fashion of the Second World War. Due to the rationing of fabric, women’s fashion suffered in that it was simple, and not in the minimalist way that triumphs during mid-nineties fashion, but simple in the way that it was more or less undesirable. Thus the craving for something graceful was distressingly desperate upon the arrival of the new collection. In general, high fashion at this time demanded, to no surprise, that the photographs show models “with their shoulders and clavicles subtly arced forward, waistlines cinched to a mere whisper, pelvises slightly tipped, and hands languidly extended to the fingertips,” (Koda and Kohle 13). Characteristic of this elegant class of feminine beauty was the model Dovima. “Hailed by Richard Avedon as the most remarkable and unconventional beauty of her time,” Dovima held a close personal and professional relationship with Avedon, and, because of this, the two delivered one of the most mastery images in photography, “Dovima with Elephants” (Fig. 2). As a regal, haute interpretation of the classic beauty and the beast tale, Dovima, clad in a black satin Christian Dior gown from Fall/Winter 1955-56 and a white satin sash, which bisects the dress into thinning slices and “reiterates the columnar form of the elephant leg besides it” (Koda and Kohle 51), stands as a central, soothing figure between two sweet-tempered beasts; her chin angled operatically to the right, shoulders in gentle repose as opposed to being haughtily arched, left hand extending to caress the upraised, phallic trunk of the gentle beast and the right extending dramatically as though to cast the shy creature on the right aside, all in all insisting upon her control over and relation to nature, much like human nature. While the piece has commercial repercussions, Avedon’s proficiency in conveying rhythm through contrasting subjects is distinctly apparent in this image, which appropriately intensifies the Romanesque level of grandeur and sophistication that Dovima personifies in this aristocratic decade of fashion.

Upon Dovima’s death in May of 1990, Avedon declared, “She was the last of the great elegant, aristocratic beauties,” thus referencing the socio-sexual revolution of “angst and rebellion against the status quo” (Koda and Kohle 30) that led to the stylistic departure from the noble fashions of the fifties. With the Civil Rights Movement gaining unprecedented momentum and the rise of the sexual and psychedelic dynamism that spearheaded the hippy movement, fashion photography sought to radically reconfigure the rigid extravagance of the previous feminine ideal. David Bailey, an English photographer, exalted the social agenda of the times within his work through the progressive characters of models Donyale Luna and Jean Shrimpton. Born Peggy Ann Freeman, Donyale Luna was photographed by David Bailey as the first black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue in 1964. While the actual core of her surname “is the very symbol of feminine magnetism, [as it’s moving tides] and its waxing and waning can make [an individual] extremely amorous”, Luna’s harmonic expression translated as unrefined in photographs and thus enabled her to embrace a more novel perspective of a black woman’s image. Perhaps what is most interesting though about photographs of Luna, is that her “intuitive ease in front of the camera” (Koda and Kohle 66) as a Black woman was actually far from the woman she allowed herself to embody off the camera. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Luna’s past was unforgivingly painful, thus she recreated her past image, from which she adopted her surname and her identity as “Mexican, American Indian, Chinese, Irish, and, last but least escapable, Negro” (Stone) as a way to distance herself from the troubling realities of her past. While Luna did much to augment the status of women of color during this age, it was through her idiosyncratic insecurities that David Bailey was able to embrace her beauty as a Black woman by capturing her with her hand masking the more indistinguishable aspects of her face, leaving only an opening between her index and middle finger by which the strength of her lone eye intimidatingly suggested that she was able to puncture and influence the Euro-dominated ideal of feminine beauty (Fig. 3). Similarly, David Bailey was able to photograph Jean Shrimpton in a way that stripped her of the posh style designers and magazines aimed to make her out to be, which infringed upon her unabashedly normative image. With Shrimpton, “carefully mentored and utterly of-the-moment” (Koda and Kohle 67) Bailey was able to create some of the first images for American Vogue that welcomed the animated, non-conscientious, sexually charged interpretation of femininity, a movement decisively labeled the “Youthquake”.
Emancipated from the confines of elaborate and extensive fabric, a woman’s body had witnessed pronounced exposure during the rebellious sixties and, as a result, was subject to further inspection during the seventies. The financial recession that faced the United States following the Vietnam War forced the seventies to make use of less than fabulous clothing, thus encouraging photographers such as Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin to explore fashion photography as a psychological narrative more so than a commercial enterprise. With the feminist movement gaining momentum in terms of the feminine figure, seventies fashion “promoted a pragmatic realism through various ‘typologies’ that reflected the lives of American women, including the career girl, the working mom, and the all-American athletic blonde,” (Koda and Kohle 101); the fashion was ready-to-wear and the models embodied a more attainable, everyday sense of beauty. Photography sought to depict this organic, empowered female image realistically, usually insisting upon producing a nonfictional, cinematic scene that would easily lend itself to capturing the narrative of the model in a purported spontaneity.

As one of the most sought after figures during this approach to the revolutionized function of females within society, Lisa Taylor, a quintessential model of American beauty, upheld the ideology of feminine liberty through an image photographed by Arthur Elgort for Calvin Klein (Fig. 4) and another for Klein, once again, by Helmut Newton (Fig. 5). The former of the two images pictures Taylor in the drivers seat in what appears to be a luxury convertible car, with her arm leaning out the window and her hair flowing in the wind. If one did not know that the photograph was shot for Calvin Klein, the brand of the clothing and accessories would otherwise go unidentified, the same applying to the car she’s driving. But yet her authoritative ownership of both the vehicle and her imminent, personal destination alludes to the subtle, fine quality of both her lifestyle and possessions. In the latter image for the May 1975 issue of Vogue, Taylor sits on a white linen couch, in a wide-legged stance, a position stereotypically attributed to men. Her right arm curls upward, subtly gesturing a muscle, and ends, ultimately, with her hand dawdling a few strands of her bob-cut hair between her fingers. Her left hand rests against her waist, which is somewhat indistinguishable as she wears a patterned, loosely fitting smock and wrap skirt that stands out against the couch yet remains grounded within the image through the texture of the wall paneling directly above her and the pattern in the carpet directly below her. While the garment chooses to leave her frame undefined in terms of curves and bust, a certain charm lies in her untied neckline, revealing to the viewer her left collarbone and the muscle on the right side of her neck. The incoming light glares against her, creating a delicate strength in her neckline through the soft shade of light across that area, illuminating the feistiness in her expression – dark colored lips pressed together and a gaze intent on the half-nude male that stands in front of her. The light attempts to graze the man entirely, but the musculature in his back creates a shadow that seems to force him into the background of the image, perhaps because of the shadow that his side profile casts against the wall to the left of the woman and despite the fact that he is physically positioned in the foreground. His pants mark the second appearance of white linen within the photograph, which, in comparison to the couch, might suggest his subordinate, seemingly yielding position, both physically and psychologically. Taylor’s “confident enjoyment” of the man that stands before her “effectively inverts the cliché of chauvinistic woman-watching males by situating a woman in the aggressor’s role and objectifying men as sexual bonbons,” (Koda and Kohle 103).

As models warranted a conspicuous volume of wealth, celebrity status, and, in addition to the extension of the fashion franchise to every achievable market place, certain faces stood out among others and thus the Supermodel was born in the eighties and early nineties. Editorial and runway models alike were present in a seemingly endless number of advertisements, and thus gained international recognition that merged this return to elitist beauty with a resonate familiarity within the public eye. With personalities of superficially infinite grandeur, Supermodels consequently assigned an untouchable sense of feminine beauty that, despite the energetic and rebellious tendencies of the photographs, was more appraisable than it was practical. Peter Lindbergh’s 1991 photograph (Fig. 6) of Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder, and Stephanie Seymour in Gianni Versace for the September issue, (which is presently one of the most critical issues of any fashion magazine due to the incoming fall fashion), of Vogue only advances the Supermodel as untouchably wealthy, beautiful, and, quite literally, super, in nearly every conceivable sense of the word.

Presently, there has been an overwhelming decline of models as the archetype of today’s fashion, and has leaned more so to celebrities, thus depicting fashion in a biographical context, as opposed to a social compliment. Consequently, fashion photography itself has suffered from the loss of the model as the majority of today’s muses are viewed “as an army of uniform anonymous mannequins and interchangeable beauty,” (Koda and Kohle 15). Nonetheless, fashion photography, while not as memorable or iconic, remains successful in dictating the ever-evolving feminine mystique, offering an extensive relationship between the photographer, model, designer, and society.

Appendix

Fig. 1. Kate Moss, photographed by Corrine Day, in “The Third Summer of Love” for The Face Magazine, July 1990

Fig. 3. Donyale Luna on the 1964 cover of British Vogue, photographed by David Bailey

Fig. 3. Donyale Luna on the 1964 cover of British Vogue, photographed by David Bailey

Fig. 2. Dovima with Elephants, Richard Avedon for Christian Dior in Harper’s Bazaar, September 1955

Fig. 2. Dovima with Elephants, Richard Avedon for Christian Dior in Harper’s Bazaar, September 1955

Fig. 5. Lisa Taylor for Calvin Klein in Vogue, May 1975, photographed by Helmut Newton

Fig. 5. Lisa Taylor for Calvin Klein in Vogue, May 1975, photographed by Helmut Newton

Fig. 4. Lisa Taylor for Calvin Klein in Vogue, October 1976, photographed by Arthur Elgort

Fig. 4. Lisa Taylor for Calvin Klein in Vogue, October 1976, photographed by Arthur Elgort

Fig. 6. Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder, and Stephanie Seymour in Gianni Versace for the 1991 September issue of British Vogue

Fig. 6. Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder, and Stephanie Seymour in Gianni Versace for the 1991 September issue of British Vogue

Works Cited
Cosgrave, Bronwyn. "The Model as Muse: Costume Institute Gala 2009 - Telegraph." Latest Fashion News, Style Advice, Fashion Pictures, Fashion Shows - Telegraph. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG5280455/The-Model-as-Muse-Costume-Institute-Gala-2009.html>.
Feeney, Mark. "Exhibit of Fashion Photography Brings Together Art and Artifice Images Relay Narratives of Contrived Beauty."Boston Globe: N.7. ABI/INFORM Complete; National Newspapers Premier; ProQuest Central; ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals. Jun 13 2004. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.
Horyn, Cathy. "Perhaps More Than Just Pretty Faces." New York Times. Web. 09 Dec. 11. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/arts/design/06mode.html>.
Koda, Harold, and Kohle Yohannan. The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale UP, 2009. Print.
Stone, Judy. "Luna Who Dreamed of Being Snow White." New York Times [New York City] 21 May 1968: D19. Print.
Tan, Cheryl Lu-Lien. "Photography: Where Fashion Spreads are Taken Seriously." Wall Street Journal: D.5. ABI/INFORM Complete; National Newspapers Premier; ProQuest Central; ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals; The Wall Street Journal. Jan 22 2009. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.