Fashion Photography vs Pictorialism
ファッション写真 / ピクトリアリズム
Fashion Photography comes from Photographic Genres and Pictorialism from Photography Movements. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Fashion Photography
From de Meyer's halos through Penn's seamless backdrops to Avedon's leaps: photography that sells clothes while inventing each era's image of the body, with studio light and page cropping as its laboratory.
Pictorialism
Presented photography as art equal to painting, through soft focus, staged scenes and handworked prints.
| Fashion Photography | Pictorialism | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1911– | late-1800s–c.1914 |
| Family | Photographic Genres | Photography Movements |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | The seamless abstract space / Designed artificial light / Invented poses / Cropping made for the page | Soft focus / Mist and backlight / Painterly composition / Handcrafted prints |
| Best used for | Collection launches that must run in print and in advertising at once · Renewing a brand's image of the body each season | Portraits meant to be atmospheric pictures rather than records · Landscapes sold as works, with the handmade print part of the value |
| Type | Reserve the space where page type will sit while shooting | Title and sign by hand in the print margin, never on the image |
| Composition | Kill the location with seamless paper and show silhouette and pose | Move the subject off center, gather the light in one area, sink the rest |
| Material | Fix the key light before tuning how each fabric returns it | Soft focus, backlit mist, hand coated printing that keeps the paper texture |
| Caution | Pose and lighting are borrowed while the construction of the garment stays invisible, leaving a picture of styling that sells nothing. | Applying blur uniformly afterwards leaves no trace of anyone following the light, and the result is simply a photograph out of focus. |