Face of Fashion at NPG

Face of Fashion
National Portrait Gallery
London 15th February – 28th May 2007

Review

The UK National Portrait Gallery in London, opened on the 15th of February an exhibition presenting portraits by some of the better know and revered fashion photographers today. Curated by Susan Bright, author of Art Photography Now, the exhibition presents the works by the collective Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and independent photographers Corinne Day, Steven Klein, Paolo Roversi and Mario Sorrenti.
Face of Fashion at the NPG follows a tradition of showing fashion photography at that institution. The first fashion photography show there, opened in 1968 showing Cecil Beaton, and since then there have been regular photographic exhibitions on that theme.
The five photographers chosen for this show have all different styles of shooting and thinking about their work, their photography is an obvious evidence of that and in this exhibition that is apparent. If one was to find a similarity between all the works exhibited it would be easy, all the pieces show a great level of intimacy between the photographer and the sitter; this screams at us either in the photography as a finished piece or in the conditions of shooting and thinking about their shooting sessions.
Some of the photographers showed portraits of models with whom they have been working for years, like for example Corinne Day and her photographic portraits of Kate Moss, Georgina Cooper and Rosemary Furgusson. It is very clear in Corinne’s work that what she is looking for are moments of intimacy or private conversation between her sitters, her camera and herself. The result is a set of photographs, some published, others not, that show us images of extreme candidness, not very usual in Fashion Photography.
The exhibition is very well hung and when entering the gallery there is a clear sense of what we are looking at, beautiful portrait images give us eye candy all the way through the show. There is a rhythm to the show and the way it is hung. We start with the extraordinary sexy works by Mert Allas & Marcus Piggott, a result of dialectic shooting sessions with their sitters, where they are very much involved in the way they are run, and the end result. We pass through Corinne Day’s pieces, almost more “artistic” photography then fashion photography. Paolo Roversi presents works in composition closer to the 19th century Photography, then to contemporary fashion. He is a master of getting the best off his sitters when in the confined space of the studio. Mario Sorentini exhibits works that transcend more then one style, documentary, narrative and studio based work, his interest in the sculptural effects of light produce great work. We end with Steve Klein and his highly narrative portraits, the shock effect of the show, for many a bit displaced in this show, but that is Steve Klein for you, a subversive spirit!
Face of fashion is a great show and will undoubtedly be a crowd puller for the NPG. It does what it says in the label, it shows you some of the faces of the fashion world and the work of the photographers that shape and create trends and trendy images for the fashion world today. In this show we have 5 different visions of portraiture in fashion photography, some of them already iconic and unforgettable, others groundbreaking and subversive, but all of them inventive and inspiring in a way.

Sidonio Costa
London

A Woman's Obcession ( Chantal Stoman)

A Woman’s Obsession
The “Brand Aunties”, Chanel Chicks, Gucci Grandmas, and Hermes Honeys…


Chantal Stoman is a French photographer based in Paris. She was born in 1967 and frequented the Hadassa Institute of Photography in Jerusalem. Chantal became a fashion photographer in 1996 and has worked for some of the major fashion and style magazines worldwide.
I came across her work during this year’s edition of the Mois de la Photographie, last November 2006 in Paris. I had seen her show advertised in the catalogue and was intrigued by the images and the short text next to them. I have to confess that I was looking for some artwork that discussed or addressed style in some way, and Chantal’s work hit the nail in the head!
In 2002 Chantal decided she had had enough of working just with professional models and started to pursue work more associated with the style of fashion reportage, then fashion photography per se. Her work is a melange between fashion photography, reportage and Anthropological/Sociological documentary. In “A Woman’s Obsession”, this artist is interested in subjects not for what they wear but in what they become or seek to become by buying and wearing what they wear. It is no doubt an anthropological approach of her subjects. It is much more then just a style/fashion approach.
Having visited Tokyo for the first time in May 2005, Chantal was fascinated with the Japanese woman obsession with European luxury goods, especially clothing and accessories from the big fashion brands, like Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Dior and many others. After this trip, Chantal came up with the idea for the “A Woman’s Obsession” project. She was funded by Chanel and visited Tokyo several times to shoot her “subjects” or better, her “subject’s behaviour”.
Hanging around in street corners of the Ginza or Omotesando districts, following shoppers on the streets and accompanying them in and out of the luxury boutiques, was Chantal’s activity during her visits to Tokyo. She took on the part of hunter of luxury clothing frenetic shoppers, and was looking for continuous consumption behaviour patterns and cultural oxymoronic moments.
All black and white, the photographs in this project are intriguing. If we do not know the story behind them and the rationale that the artist is following, we are as observers in a realm of confusion without really understanding if they are journalistic/documentary photographs or “artistic”. The subjects are not directed by the photographer and no photographs were staged, so what we get is an account of what the artist sees as the normal daily activities of a certain type of Japanese Woman that, as Chantal says: “leaves home in the morning dressed from head to toe with the outfit she bought the day before, only to go shopping for a new one for the next day.”
Although this project has fashion and an obsession for fashion goods as its core motor, it is not about fashion or style, in essence, it is about a certain kind of woman that sees fashion as a work of art in itself. It is about a culturally traceable attraction and fascination that Japanese have for the western world, especially Europe.
Up until the 19th century and for about 200 years, Japan was a country with its doors closed to any outside influence. After the 19th century it opened itself to the world and according to Kazuko Ohye, it recognised in Europe a continent with an “image of high quality, heritage, craftsmanship, elegance, and spirituality. Europe was seen as the model of modern civilisation (…)”. For Ohye, the last 130 years of Japanese cultural landscape have been greatly influenced by a “generalised aspiration and obsession with European culture”.
Ladies with their traditional Kimonos walk around the fashionable districts alongside younger Japanese girls, they are all looking for the same, the next luxury dress, bag, shoe or jewellery, which will confirm their place in Japanese society. They all want to be wearing the last luxury accessory, preferably the same accessory.
In Japanese society, contrary to western societies, having whatever everyone else has is desirable, in order to achieve uniformity. In Europe, on the other hand, the buyers of Chanel get comfort from knowing that society at large, cannot afford to have, and buy the expensive luxury goods that they can. In Japan the obsession with fashion is indulged so that the buyers can fall in line with everyone else, in Europe it aims exactly the contrary, to make someone be “pointed out” as having something exquisite that no one else has.
Chantal Stoman’s work is maybe documenting or showing us the turning point of a feminine cultural trait of a society that is slowly reverting back to “all things Japanese”, instead of following all that is foreign and especially European, just because that is associated with higher quality. It appears that Japanese society is becoming more aware of the fact that as a consumer society she will be characterised not for the brands it buys but by its intrinsic values. This is still not the case today, but there are signs that tell us that this is the direction of Japanese consumer habits.
Chantal’s photographs are snapshots of a period of change in Japanese consumer behaviour and construction/re-construction of individual and national identity. They are captivating; they grabbed my attention with the humanity of their prise de vue.
Although almost every subject photographed is dressed in ridiculously expensive luxury clothing, they some times look to me as if they were naked. Their “soul” is exposed, they are photographed in moments when, through their buying power, they are making, or have just made decisions regarding who they are and who they want to be/become. When we look at these photographs there are evidences and traces of very intimate and personal moments, identity revelatory and developmental moments, and fragments of time when everything comes together for the woman who are photographed.



Sidonio Costa
London, December 2006