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Response to Can 'real' fashion be done with a 'glamour'-type model?

from Tommy Zablan (lensman49@hotmail.com)
Edward Kang wrote; "...and there are very few women who can pull both off."

Some follow-up questions I would like to ask is:
What exactly does it mean to "pull off" the fashion look?
Is it the model?
Is it the way the shot is made?

I am interested in this since I have struggled with the same questions, and as I look back at the shots in my portfolio I've realized that much of it borders between portraiture and fashion. (well maybe this couldn't be helped since the bulk of my work last year was shooting model portfolios for aspiring fashion models)

The partial answers I have come up with are
1) EYE CONTACT...this isn't as critical in a fashion shot as it is in portraiture.
2) In a fashion shot, the model is practically "acting", and the photographer is the director as opposed to the "trying to capture the essence of the person" approach of portaiture (though if you look at the celebrity shots of Mark Seliger, then the lines get very, very blurred don't they?)
3) In the fashion shot, the emphasis is on the clothes - the forms, lines, and color they create along with the body of the model, or, in the absence of any - the attitude.
4) Richard Avedon says "Sell the dream" when it comes to fashion photography. so maybe 'pulling it off' means making a viewer think "I want to look like that. I want to live the life she lives. What else does she do (given the context of the picture and the fantasy built around it)"

Question is: can this be pulled off with a model not incredibly tall, shapely, and beautiful? Does it have to do with the percieved image of what a fashion model should look like?

Oddly enough, I AM sure of is that a lot of it has to do with the skill of the model in "projecting" or "acting", the clothes she's wearing, how she's posed and how the light/environment interplays with her, and the skill of the stylist/make-up/hair artist.

It would be interesting to see someone like Avedon tasked to shoot Versace with a "glamour type model" and see how he does it.

(posted 8812 days ago)

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