Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Condé Nast

An exhibition of images from the fashion world as seen at Conde Nast. The thing that is so wonderful about this exhibition is the amazing photographers who have contributed to the magazine over the years and the truly exceptional images they created.

Erwin Blumenfeld, American Vogue, March 1945Photograph: Erwin Blumenfeld/Condé Nas

A new exhibition in Edinburgh gathers the work of over 80 notable fashion photographers, including Edward Steichen, Norman Parkinson, Albert Watson and Sølve Sundsbø, to showcase their work for the publishing house.
Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Condé Nast is at City Art Centre, Edinburgh until 8 September

Fashion photography – glamorous, provocative, beautiful, accomplished, and magical – has been associated with some of the most famous names in the history of the medium since the early years of the 20th century.

Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm; Sunday 12pm – 5pm

Who is this for? – All
Dates: 15 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
Cost: £5; Concessions £3.50; £2.50 for children aged 5 to 16 inclusive; £11 for a family ticket for two adults and two children or one adult and three children. Other ticketing options are available; please ask at the venue.
The great American photographer Edward Steichen took what were probably the first fashion photographs in 1911. Since then it has become a unique platform for experimentation, balanced between commerce and creativity, recording the Zeitgeist and capturing individual dreams and desires.

The legendary publisher Condé Nast recognised this very early on and created a distinctive style for his magazines, elevating haute couture and turning fashion photography into an art form. With his keen sense for discovering new talents, he found the best photographers and promoted their careers, a tradition continued by subsequent editors and art directors at Condé Nast.

The exhibition shows early work by such luminaries as Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Guy Bourdin, Corinne Day, Mario Testino and Sølve Sundsbø as it appeared in the pages of Vogue, Glamour and other Condé Nast publications.

With unprecedented access to the Condé Nast archives in New York, Paris, London and Milan, the curator Nathalie Herschdorfer has gathered original prints, as well as pages from the actual magazines. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see the work of over eighty photographers right at the outset of their careers.

This exhibition has been organised by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/Paris/Lausanne, in collaboration with City Art Centre, Edinburgh.

Edward Steichen, American Vogue, December 1923Photograph: Edward Steichen/Condé Nast

Clifford Coffin, American Vogue, June 1949Photograph: Clifford Coffin/Condé Nast

Norman Parkinson, Glamour, October 1949Photograph: Norman Parkinson/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive

John Rawlings, American Vogue, March 1943Photograph: John Rawlings/Condé Nast

Image: Miles Aldridge, Vogue Italia, September 2002

See more images on The Guardian pages here

Vogue Magazine article
Glamour Magazine article

Photography galleries in London

There is nothing better for the keen amateur photographer than to spend time in photographic galleries looking at the work of great photographers. If you are in London then this guide to galleries on the Time Out website might help you find your way around

London has produced many of the twentieth century’s greatest photojournalists and fashion photographers – Terence Donovan, David Bailey, Don McCullin and Norman Parkinson among them. And although the medium sometimes struggles to be accepted as fine art, the first (and so far only) photographer to win the Turner Prize, Wolfgang Tillmans in 2000, was also a Londoner, albeit an adopted one.

 

The capital’s thriving and ever-expanding art scene is home to galleries that show and sell photography in all its forms, from the earliest nineteenth-century daguerreotypes to limited-edition fine-art prints and documentary shots of celebrities and pop stars.See all the galleries listed here

More from the archives – Norman Parkinson – in pictures

Again from the Guardian, do they not understand the meaning of news?

“An exhibition opens this weekend of original vintage prints by Norman Parkinson, who revolutionised fashion photography in the 1950s and 60s. The photographs, owned by Parkinson’s former assistant, Angela Williams, will be on show at the M Shed in Bristol from 21 January to 15 April. Many of the 60 prints are previously unseen”…..MORE

The M Shed in Bristol is a large museum of the life of Bristol which also show other exhibitions, a fascinating visit and now you can get to see some of Norman Parkinson’s pictures

all images ©Norman Parkinson