P#11 Q2A: Can You Provide Us with a General Introduction to the World of Fashion Photography?
Fashion Photography Defined
Most of us have a general idea of what fashion photography is, but few of us truly understand what it involves and the sheer scope of the industry. Bruce Smith was kind enough to shed some light on the topic.
Understanding Fashion Photography
Bruce Smith: Fashion photography has so many facets to it, it's very hard to be specific about any one particular area. The phrase "fashion photography" is about shooting garments -- about making clothing look interesting and perhaps making it look better than it is.
It's about being able to interpret what a fashion designer envisions when they design a garment. You need to be able to improve that garment and make it more interesting. You need to be able to put that garment into a photo of a lifestyle that makes people associate themselves with it.
Fashion itself instills emotion within the person who is either going to be wearing it or potentially wearing it. They get excited by it because they think, "That's going to make me feel better," or, "It's going to make me look better." It's working on a certain part of the emotion and the psyche.
A Job To Do
As a fashion photographer, your job is to create a feeling in people or to relate this feeling to people about feel-good factors.
You could be a catalog photographer shooting images for the sole purpose of selling garments off the page. Or you could be making fashion statements and working with extremely beautiful gowns. You don't necessarily show the stitching on the gown but you certainly show the romance of that gown because people are buying into the romance of it.
Fashion photography as a whole is very multifaceted. It's very difficult to isolate it and to talk about one particular area of it.
A fashion photographer is somebody who shoots fashion, somebody who shoots things that are fashionable, somebody who shoots garments for other people to view.
The fashion photographer takes what a fashion designer has produced to the person who is a potential buyer.
Most women have an extreme interest and passion and fascination for fashion. It's like being a flower and the flower needs to express itself with its adornments. Fashion is an adornment.
Most women know a lot about fashion. As a fashion photographer, all I do is interpret what a fashion designer wants to express with their clothes. I just do it in a two dimensional manner. Fashion photography is just recording fashion.
In Summary
So what is fashion photography? It seems that there's really no single answer to that question. Bruce Smith summed it up nicely when he said that fashion photography is, in the broadest and most simple terms, the act of recording fashion.
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