The Seven Photographs that changed Fashion.
- Ellie
- Dec 4, 2018
- 6 min read
Recently, in a seminar we watched a documentary for BBC Four about 7 influential beauty and fashion photographers who have evolved photography into what it is today. Rankin researched the icons, their outstanding photos and re-created some of the iconic images giving him modern day contemporary twist on them.
The first photographer Rankin looked at was Cecil Beaton - a portrait photographer, famous for his flamboyant glamorous style, wit and playfulness. He was most famous for the many Vogue cover's he shot throughout his career.
Rankin decided to recreate Beaton's 1934 shot 'Box Hat' - in an interview Beaton said “I wanted to make something more than a photograph, I want to create a dream world”. I think this image reflects this quote as the head popping out of the box seems almost surreal and something that would happen in a fantasy land. Rankin started off shooting with the same Camera Beaton used in 1934 - a 1932 Rolleiflex camera. This period camera had no mirror so as the photographer took the photo, they would only see it upside down. Therefore, the set, model and style had to be extremely well thought out. The image he captured using the Rolleiflex gave the same feel as the original portrait by Beaton - even down to the models emotion. However, the period photographic process is a lot more time consuming than digital so Rankin later referred back to his usual digital way of shooting which is how he got his final shot. This also allowed him to touch up and edit the final image in post production! I personally prefer Rankin's recreation of this image as it feels a lot more clean cut and glamorous.

The next iconic photograph Rankin explored was Erwin Blumenfeld’s 1950 Vogue cover. Erwin Blumenfeld had a highly successful career creating more Vogue covers than any other photographer. Straight away you can see that Blumenfeld was hugely influenced by surrealism and his images look quite distorted, for example features of her face such as her nose are missing.
A huge part of this image is the lighting to make her skin look bright and washed out , so for Rankin the lighting is key to make his final image as successful as the original. The 1950 Vogue cover was originally taken in black and white but was bleached by Blumenfeld and was coloured by hand, so i was really excited to see how Rankin was going to achieve this look. The final image was shot digitally so the image could then be edited post production on photoshop to create the modern reenactment of it. The final image was given a modern edge by model Heidi Klum who changed the pose up a bit to create a more 'sexy' version of it - I think this is a great update and really brings the image into the 21st century.
In the documentary Rankin analyses the image, explaining that “you do not question where the rest of the face is” and I think this is what made the image so successful.

The third image Rankin looked at was Paris-based photographer Richard Avedon and his ‘Dovima with Elephants’ image from 1955. Movement is a strong feature in this particular image and this is unusual within his work, with his usual focus being of beauty and celebrity portraits, making this photograph an extremely original and brave piece of work.
This image was probably one of the hardest to recreate for Rankin as getting the casting and location right would make or break the recreation. Lillian Bassman had been casted for this as Avedon himself had said that she looks like the original model, Dovima. As well as this they set up the shoot in a Zoo for the Elephants to feel as comfortable as possible. The original image created in 1955 by Avedon had elephants tied down with chains, whereas, the elephants in his 2009 shot were free, this made getting the perfect shot even harder. For this one I did prefer Avedon's original piece because I feel it portrays a more exciting story and seems more theatrical then the recreation, however I do appreciate the time and effort put into capturing the perfect image from both parts.

Next up was David Bailey, arguably one of the most well known fashion and portrait photographers in the world has a highly distinctive style. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down class barriers by injecting a working-class or “punk” look into his work through photographing iconic models, musicians and celebrities.
Rankin chose to recreate this particular 1962 photograph of Jean Shrimpton - Bailey's lover at the time. and only used a large piece of cardboard to create the wind used to create her 'hair flick'. Her stature and flowing hair is iconic but does not detract from her beautiful profile. It was only right for Rankin to use his girlfriend and model as his subject - to capture the intimacy that is between the photographer and model and is shown in Baileys original image. David Bailey himself was there during the shoot which was really exciting and great to hear first hand how he created that image. I think Rankin's final outcome was just as successful as the original and really captured the three key elements position, pose and beauty.

The fifth photographer Rankin explored was Helmut Newton, known for his provocative sexually suggestive images often including women in their underwear, or sometimes in the nude, his style empowered women rather than objectifying them. This image 'Rue Aubriot' was featured in Vogue in 1975 and I think is quite androgynous as it shows off shows off the models sexy figure with an edge of masculinity at the same time.
When Rankin recreated this image he want to the exact same location as Newton when he originally took the photograph. I think this really aided how well he recreated this as the location is so important, not only making the actual background look the same but also this meant he could use the same street lighting as the original. I also think the street helps set the scene and tell the story of of the image as it feels very intense and romantic. He also had the original model Vibeke Knudsen fly out to assist and help guide the shoot. All these factors combined really help Rankin create such a successful and similar shot.

The sixth recreation of Rankin’s was one Guy Bourdin’s images for Vogue in 1977. Bourdin tells fascinating narratives through his images, with dramatic effects with intense colour saturation. For this the biggest challenge for Rankin was to really capture the highly provocative and erotic imagery that Bourdin loved to capture.
One of the main challenges, however, for Rankin was the lighting. Bourdin's original photograph used soft-boxes or spotlights which would face directly on the model to light up the models complexion, outfit and expression. Rankin's contemporary interpretation used the same technique with lighting. However, I don't feel like this was the least successful recreation out of the lot. The hair and makeup was more dramatic, than in the original image whilst the legs were covered with bright tights which completely loses the sexual and erotic message Bourdin purposely wanted to show. The images are very similar in regards to poses yet I feel Rankin exaggerated the colour palette and saturation too much.

The final photograph Rankin set out to recreate was Herb Ritts' 1989 'Fred with tyres' image. This particular image transformed how men were perceived in the Fashion Industry, showing that men can be seen as sexy as well as women. The rough 'sex icon' model against a 'manly' background became a catwalk hit and this image was quickly was named 'one of the photos that changed fashion'.
Rankin used model David Gandy for this shoot, and despite him being a bit smaller in size compared to the original model the final outcome was incredible. I love the fact that Rankin stuck to using the film camera, as I feel that this really completed the photograph, and the same outcome just wouldn't have been achieved with a digital camera. However the contrast was amplified in the final image to create the same feel as Ritts' original photograph. Overall though I do think Rankin has been really successful at recreating such an iconic image well.

Overall, it's been really interesting to see how different period techniques can change the look of a image and completely change the story it is trying to tell. I really loved how Rankin did't just try to copy the images and that be that, but took the time to research and understand what techniques were used to capture the image and the narratives and idea's the images were trying to tell.
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