7 Photographs That Changed Fashion

This is a documentary film about how fashion photography changed throughout the years and to become what it is today. Fashion photographer Rankin chose 7 of his favourite photographers and tried to recreate some of their most influential work. He tried to recreate it as closely as possible so he even used the cameras they've used back in the days. The photographers are: Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969), Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Helmut Newton (1920-2004), Herb Ritts (1952-2002), David Bailey (1938) and Guy Bourdin (1928-1991).

I loved the film. I think you can learn a lot about photography and taking images. It's interesting to see how patient you had to be to take the images, also to wait for three days to see if they turned out the way you wanted them to. It was hard work. There was no Photoshop and everything had to be perfect for the shoot, from the lighting to the person/ object that was in the image. Today everyone can take their phone, take a photo, and say they are a photographer. But you can see in this film how all these photographers were devoted to their work and treated every image they took as a piece of art. That's what makes them real artists.  

Erwin Blumenfeld
If I had to choose one of these amazing photographers to be my favourite, it would be Erwin Blumenfeld. I loved the abstract image he took for the cover of January 1950 American Vogue issue. In print he whitened the whole image, except the most beautiful features of a woman's face- the eyes and lips, the beauty mark as well. The image is called "Doe Eye" and the model was Jean Patchett.

Blumenfeld (1950) and Rankin (2008)

(source: http://fm1022groupone.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/rankin-7-photographs-that-changed.html -date: Oct 24th 2014)

Rankin decided to slightly change the image, and his model, Heidi Klum, licked her lips. Also a part of the nose is showing. But he did it in his own style, and it has the same 'famme fatale' feel to it.

http://rankinfilms.com/documentaries/seven-photographs-that-changed-fashion/ 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4161221/Rankin-Seven-Photographs-that-Changed-Fashion.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gq75c
(all information found on Oct 14th 2014)