Thought you knew everything you need to know about fashion photography? Think again. In And Out Of Fashion is a new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery showcasing Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen’s retrospective works that will challenge your perception of the genre.
Sassen is one of the world’s most exciting modern photographers. Her style is instantly recognisable and she has the ability to seamlessly exist in both the world of high-end advertising and editorial photography as well as fine art photography.
This major international retrospective aside, it’s been a big year for Sassen – she is also exhibiting at the Venice Biennale’s central pavilion and has two active A/W13 campaigns for major brands Carven and M Missoni.
Unsurprisingly, Sassen’s editorial work can be found in high fshion titels including Numero, Dazed & Confused, AnOther, POP, Purple and i-D –magazines that blur the line between fashion and art.
The photographer was born in Amsterdam where she currently resides and works. Her parents are incredibly philanthropic, when Sassen was two years old her father, a doctor, decided to move the family to Kenya to work in a small rural clinic. The family lived in Africa for nearly three years, an experience that dictated Viviane’s future visual aesthetic.
Saturated colours and long heavy shadows are signature elements in Sassen’s work, similar to those you would find in a late afternoon African landscape. Another important identifying feature of her work is the way she positions her models – be they the professional long-limbed fashion types or the real African people she photographs for her artworks.
Faces are often obscured and bodies contorted in strange positions, requiring you to take a closer inspection. Sometimes they feel as though they have been ‘draped’ or put out in the sun to dry – modern surrealism at its best.
Nudes A Journey, Mimi (Parasomia Series)
In And Out Of Fashion features the best of Sassen’s work in fashion from 1995 to 2012, bringing together around 50 photographic prints and vitrine displays, brimming with notes, plans and magazines, selected by the artist, as well as a specially designed installation, in which 200 images are projected onto a mirror in the centre of the exhibition.
Installation shots at In and Out of Fashion, Mirror projection
M Missoni A/W13
Top image caption: In Bloom 2011 for Dazed & Confused
