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The Counterfeit Body: Fashion Photography and the Deceptions
of Femininity, Sexuality, Authenticity and Self in the 1950s, 60s and 70s
Fashion, as it is actualized and spoken through the medium of photography, represents some of the most beautiful and hideous elements of culture and society. Invariably, fashion photography pictures and proffers standards of beauty, self and display that, by sheer style and omnipresence, overwhelm common sense and rational thought. The innate contradictions within fashion photography and the larger industry it represents burden the form with criticism. This precarious position fashion photography exists in endangers the possibility of looking at the form outside a purely non-decorative or aesthetic framework, and further, problematizes the reconciliation of a place for its valid study in the academic schema. This discussion will focus on fashion photography in advertising as a perspective on the perceptions and presentation of the human form in modern culture. The inquiry will be based on the examination of three films’ representations of significant periods in fashion photography and a review of the criticisms of social theorists in regard to the form. The objective here is to determine whether fashion photography provides insight into the social context and notions of the self and display and their constructions of gender, sexual and personal identities. Fashion photography informs and is informed by social context in perception and presentation of the human form, especially the female form. By using three films representing the world and system of fashion photography in three different periods, I will consider the importance of this photographic genre by asserting its place in socio-cultural discourse as it addresses and questioning notions of self and display and the constructions of gender, sexual and social identities. Each film encapsulates the essence of its period by reflecting the current values and standards of society and fashion through a visual medium. Film and photography are two visual means of mass dissemination, particularly relevant for fashion images. Their combination, resulting in fashion photography in filmic narratives, presents the viewer with significant cultural insight as it refers to the fashion arena. These films simultaneously speak a reality and a misrepresentation of reality, in that they report the actualities of their time while participating in the continued perpetuation of a more general sense of illusion inherent in fashion photography. By performing close readings of these texts and images, it is possible to develop a greater understanding of why fashion photography used to be highly relevant, revolutionary and respectable form and speculate about the reasons why this may no longer be the case. To take some of the most talented photographers of the genre from previous years and pit them against the majority of contemporary fashion photographers may appear extreme and one-sided, but the chasm between the two groups serves only to more fully reveal the progression of decay and regression of creativity in the more recent years. There has yet to be another photographer of the caliber of those selected to examine in this paper. In engaging with the films, as well as the work of several theorists in cultural studies and adjacent areas, I offer a perspective that expands and rejuvenates rather than narrows and further colors peoples’ understanding of and negative opinions about fashion photography. Through comprehensive readings of three films, one from each era, I intend to demonstrate how each film functions as an advertisement for its period, in its aesthetic, historical and cultural sensibilities. Additionally, I will examine the evolution of the persona of the fashion photographer and his relationship to all elements and facets of the form as this character is manifested in the films. The figure of the fashion photographer also assumes the responsibility of continuously generating what constitutes the ‘fashionable image’ at given historical moments. As Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson assert in Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis, the photographer memorializes notions and conceptions of beauty (4). Finally, I will explore how the audience is constructed for each film, for which the gaze has been catered to and designed for viewing and how the characters are seen onscreen. I have chosen Funny Face (1956), Blowup (1966) and Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) as representative texts for their uncanny sense of historicity in regard to their adjoining real fashion climates. These films are not timeless; while they are still referenced and relevant today, they are almost totally nuanced to their era. Each text recreates the individual realities of their fashion worlds. I offer these films as advanced case studies, visual texts that openly communicate the historical trends, sensibilities and theoretical elements of discourse about fashion photography in each context. My project for this paper, in addition to providing a solid background for each of the aforementioned periods and their complementary films, is to examine the origins of actions of appropriation that have surfaced in more contemporary work, and their implications and impact. I also plan to investigate the evolution of fashion photography aesthetics in conjunction with the shifting structuring of the gaze—the interplay between spectator and spectacle. When, where and how did this come about? What led to the cessation of creation and the instigation of mimicry? The question at hand is how can contemporary fashion photography remain autonomous and novel in the age of appropriation and pastiche, and, in the commercial age, do these things even matter anymore? Fashion photography, in the form of presenting garments on and off bodies and the system in which these images circulate and operate, has long been on tenuous ground in both the public and academic spheres. While the public may continue to be critical of the idea of such photography and the idea of fashion in general—its triviality, wastefulness, impermanence and commercialism, many people still buy the clothes and keep up with the trends. Attempts to legitimize the topic of fashion and its depiction as a subject as an area warranting serious academic consideration and examination however, have proved more difficult. Although these attempts have been increasingly frequent as the role of fashion has become increasingly more evident and influential and its dialogue more social in its mainstream prevalence, the general consensus is still to view fashion and its related institutions in a largely negative manner and its presentation unworthy of consideration beyond a superficial level. Proponents and creators of fashion photography have strained to garner respect for their form as well as maintain an appearance of continuous innovation and a sense of progressive ‘modernity’ through each season.
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