On a grey, rainy day in September (I know, this is a late post) I went to the exhibition ‘A Different Vision On Fashion Photography’. This exhibition at De Kunsthal in Rotterdam is about Peter Lindbergh, a famous photographer from Germany.
Lindbergh’s photos show that his fashion photography is about more than beauty. With his black-and-white photographs Lindbergh tries to express the personality of the models in the image. He keeps the faces of the models very natural, with little make-up. The exhibition emphasises that Lindbergh always cherishes pluralistic beauties who appeal to other women and men. He refuses to standardize criteria of perfection.
“It became something much more than fashion, more than a matter of being blonde or not blonde, fat or thin, sportive or intellectual”
This idea sounds appealing to me . A lot of young models in the fashion industry are put away like they are grown up women. They wear a lot of make-up which makes them look much older. A lot of those models are around seventeen years old. My mom once said: “Why would you want sixteen year old models to present clothes which are made for people my age?” But all right, I can write another article about that. My point is, that Lindbergh doesn’t do that. His photos are realistic, pure. Rightly so, he is called photographer of truth.
“It should be the responsibility of photographers today to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection.” -Peter Lindbergh (2015)
This photographer of truth also uses his own view on the society in his images. Lindbergh takes photos which have messages about politics and women’s equality, for example.
“You cannot simply ignore the whole world you see in front of you, it would be unchallenging to reduce fashion photography to be only about fashion”
He basically mixes his photos with art. Like the exhibition said: “Lindbergh’s pure black-and-white photographs have determined the course of fashion photography since the 1980’s. He introduced a new realism in photography.”
