Fashion Photography Now

In his latest book Antiglossy, art director Patrick Remy explores how social media meets traditional print, to showcase an innovative new era of photographic style expression

As a book about contemporary photography trends, Antiglossy is predicated on luscious visuals; the images speak a thousand words. To delve into the book’s underlying premise, though, its author is more than happy to settle into some good old-fashioned storytelling. “There was a time, not so long ago, when fashion photography was an important step between design and distribution – to inspire! And, incidentally, to encourage consumers to go to the store to buy that little dress they spotted on glossy paper,” begins Patrick Remy, in his heavy French accent. “Things today are more complex.”

The complexity relates to how the term ‘fashion photography’ – and, indeed, the meaning of the term ‘fashion photographer’ – is being redefined by a new fashion landscape.

He is in a prime position to spot the flux. Patrick Remy Studio specialises in consulting and iconographic research for luxury brands and advertising agencies, and the Paris-based art director most recently worked on Louis Vuitton’s Fashion Eye series.

Rizzoli picked up Antiglossy, Remy’s latest print outing, where he has assembled an anthology of work from 30 photographers. They were selected for inclusion, by Remy, for their ability to encapsulate contemporary fashion photography trends in the social media age.

Fashion’s way is to draft in photographers “ who are not strictly in fashion, to breathe creative ideas into what they consider an art form

“My choices are a new generation of photographers – not necessarily fashion photographers – but those with a deep point of view underpinning their work when they have taken on fashionorientated projects. They use the codes of fashion to make art.”

For the book, Remy got into a certain psyche. He imagined the respective photo being taken from the pages of the magazine – captions removed – and put on the white wall of a gallery, before asking ‘does this work as art?’

The times may have changed but a timeless adage persists: the cream rises to the top. “An image is still an image, and must endure whether it is created for Instagram, in a magazine or in a book. That comes from its quality and how memorable it is.”

Photographers’ labours of love have become images on squares that pass fleetingly under the fingertips on an app such as Instagram; ‘liked’, then scrolled into the past. Digital media has created a continuous flow of images.

Applied to style, “Fashion photography admittedly still exists, but the stories have become segments of a strategy,” Remy explains.

The tales, “Told in a series and comprising a dozen images, become a succession of small pebbles dropped in magazines and social media – and we are not quite certain to find our own way in to the narrative, as with an endless conversation.”

Yet from this cloud of [what can be) confused conversation, crackles lightning bolts of sheer creativity. In an attempt to balance commercial viability with creative vision, artists are leading the fashion photography genre in surprising new directions.

Remy talks about how fashion latched onto the work of Andrew Miksys. The first edition of his book Disko was an act of visual anthropology, where he documented dingy disco locations in deep Lithuania, ‘once Soviet offices, detentions centres, weapon storage...’ with the images capturing images of ‘kids poured into Western jeans and poses… creatures of a brief moment in time… that will never exist again except in these pictures.’

It was not a style-orientated book the first time around – but so gritty and stark were the images that French fashion brand Vetements commissioned a separate clothing shoot for Dazed magazine, using the same local teens as models. ‘Glossy’, it was certainly not. The project encapsulates a strong currency in the attention wars: the art of surprise.

Remy explains that society has a hand in shaping the creative climate. “I always say ‘Creativity is high when the stock market is high, and creativity drops when the stock market has dipped.’ Luxury is a billion-dollar business but when budgets are tight, this mood filters down to the photographer and you have that black and white image with an understated, sombre look,” he observes.

“Fashion’s way around that is to draft in photographers who are not strictly in fashion, to breathe creative ideas into what they consider an art form.”

Designers and consumers now aspire to “ a photography away from the usual references, singular in expression

A balance has been struck between virtual and print, though. “With this digital tsunami, the pendulum always swings back. Back to books,” says Remy.

He cites recent examples like Loewe, which offered luxe literature classics such as Dracula, Don Quixote and Wuthering Heights during one of its fashion shows. “For its magazine, meanwhile, the brand collaborates with artists who usually operate away from the fashion industry.”

Indeed, Gucci has commissioned several such photographers for their books, just as Bottega Veneta did for their advertising campaigns. “Both the brands and the magazines are done with the shine and the glam, and are searching for meaning. It may be the end of the glossy paper, but not the end of the life of the image.”

Remy assembled his 30 fashion photography avengers from across this mixed media landscape: some on websites, some met through friends of friends, and others found in select magazines such as Vogue which still thrive “because Instagram is not enough to tell a full story – you need pages.”

For the consumer, the fashion business still needs to “preserve the dream” Remy asserts, and for this, “The industry that needs artists, fashion photographers to deliver and further the dream; that slice of the dream that brings garments to life before they are even worn by consumers.” A narrative still needs to be unfurled.

To write the visual narrative, photographers draw from an arsenal of new power plays. “Surprise now replaces references, the antiglossy and the glamour,” says Remy. “Misogyny is receding, the desire for the body leaves room to other values, and the struggle against standardisation is permanent. Society as it is, and not as it is dreamt, has re-placed the glam, the glitter and the gloss. Designers and consumers now aspire to and need a photography away from the usual references, singular in expression.”

When it comes to understanding this brave new world, Remy’s thoughtprovoking tome of stop motion stills contains work from the likes of Daniel Sannwald (who is establishing a strong and recognisable that is already catching the attention of some of the most influential trendsetters in fashion), Ruth Hogben (who assisted visionary legend Nick Knight, and going solo has since been deployed on visuals for brands such as Christian Dior Parfums, Fendi, Hugo Boss and Alexander McQueen) and Erwin Wurm (Who questions “What was traditionally understood as ‘sculpture’ was some three dimensional thing that had to last for-ever. My feeling was that sculpture could also last but a few moments.”

Antiglossy is a varied and eclectic collection but, moreover, is a concise entry point to understanding fashion photography – as it is now.

Antiglossy: Fashion Photography Now by Patrick Remy and is published by Rizzoli. rizzoliusa.com