Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/468853
Fashion photography has ruffled feathers, challenged stereotypes, created fantasies and, more recently, taken on fine art. Surveying the art world's power galleries, you're likely to recognize names typically associated with fashion spreads in magazines: David LaChapelle has hung his decadent photographs on the walls of Blue Chip institutions like Paul Kasmin Gallery; Inez & Vinoodh, the prolific husband-wife duo, has shown their work at Gagosian Gallery; and British lensman Nick Knight has displayed his oeuvre at the esteemed Saatchi Gallery. Now, Steven Meisel, perhaps the most admired living fashion photographer, joins the shutterbug-cum-artist elite. Auction house Phillips is currently wrapping a three-city selling tour of Meisel's work, which kicked off in Paris in November, alighted in London for the holidays and closes in New York on March 3— the photos, however, will be available for purchase through the early fall. Titled "Role Play," the 25-photo exhibition took months to put together and traces Meisel's work over the last three decades. According to Vanessa Hallett, Phillips' worldwide head of photographs, the exhibition was sparked by demand. In October 2012, the auction house sold an important Meisel image of Linda Evangelista and Kristen McMenamy for $86,500. "It was well above its pre-sale estimate of $60,000," Hallett says. "For the past few years, we have been observing a rise in interest for fashion photographs across the entire spectrum, from early classic works by Irving Penn and Richard Avedon to more contemporary images by Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh." Phillips has staged selling exhibitions for fashion photographers in the past, including for Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz. "More and more collectors are integrating works by these important photographers into their collections, and we expect this trend to continue in the foreseeable future." Meisel is unique for his tremendous oeuvre, Hallett says. His career started in the 1980s. After attending the Parsons The New School for Design, he worked as an illustrator at Women's Wear Daily before picking up a camera. One of his first assignments? Shooting test shots for Elite models; he's been known for spotting talent ever since. Today, along with regularly shooting campaigns for luxury houses such as Prada, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin and Versace, Meisel is the leading photographer for both Vogue and Vogue Italia—photographing every cover for the latter since 1988. The New York native also lets his work speak for itself; he may have catapulted loads of supermodels' careers (think: Christy Turlington, Amber Valletta and Cindy Crawford), but he's notoriously press-shy. To compound the intrigue, Meisel has also never put together a monograph of his work—you know, the coffee- table types that serve as pretty paperweights, securing the artist's posterity for years to come. So suffice it to say, the winnowing process for "Role Play" was fierce. In just 25 images, Phillips sought to form what Hallett calls "a panoramic overview of Meisel's remarkable career." Culled from fashion editorials, the chosen images include Meisel's favorite: a grunge-era shot featuring Kristen McMenamy and Daniel Blaylock (Vogue, December 1992) that perfectly balances attitude and style. "This image captured a real cultural moment of a music scene and fashion scene fusing together to create a new look," says Meisel, also noting the photo story was almost killed for pushing the envelope—with "men in skirts," of all things. Indeed, it's Meisel's uncanny ability to nail the feeling of the moment, filtering it through his unerring fashion sensibility and vision for the future that inspired the title of the exhibition. It's also his seemingly inexhaustible appetite of storytelling. "The title alludes to his boundless creativity in coming up with new and fresh ideas for each commission," Hallett says. Other exhibition highlights: a cheeky monochromatic portrait of Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell (Vogue Italia, December 1989) and a black-and-white shot of Raquel Zimmermann (W, September 2011) that oozes elegance from a bygone era. There's also a lounging photo of model Guinevere Van Seenus (Vogue Italia, January 2008) that's so richly saturated, it's almost dripping with acid hues. These are such memorable fashion photography moments that it's no surprise if viewers pull out their iPhones and capture the photographs for their own social media channels. (Interestingly, unlike many working fashion photographers, Meisel isn't on Instagram.) Given the nature of the work—fashion photography is usually aligned with trends that come and go—there's a timelessness to the images that speaks to Meisel's great talent. Says Hallett: "He has been defining the zeitgeist of each decade since the 1980s, and to this day, he continues to push boundaries, excite and charm. He makes it easy to fall in love with photography with each frame that he takes." BAL HARBOUR 177 "WE HAVE BEEN OBSERVING A RISE IN INTEREST FOR FASHION PHOTOGRAPHS ACROSS THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM." —Vanessa Hallett, Phillips