Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion

Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion is a group exhibition dedicated to the examination and exploration of the role of the female body in contemporary fashion photography.

Presenting images from 2010 to 2017, this exhibition charts a movement in which the body is captured in extraordinary gestures and poses, tracing a new aesthetic in fashion photography that originated in 2010 and continues to develop today.

Co-curated by Shonagh Marshall and Holly Hay of The Ground Floor Project, Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion is the first iteration of a three-part partnership with luxury online retailer THE OUTNET.COM. It brings together diverse photographers whose images push the boundaries of fashion image-making, connected by a shared interest in posture, gesture and pose. The viewer is challenged to consider both the body’s role in the construction of a fashion photograph and its effect on the presentation of the garment itself. 

Work by celebrated photographers such as Coco Capitan, Charlie Engman, Johnny Dufort, Marton Perlaki and Zoe Ghertner amongst others will be on display alongside seminal, specially commissioned editorial images from the magazine archives of British Vogue, AnOther, i-D, Interview, The Gentlewoman, Double and Self Service. 

The show deconstructs the processes and inspirations behind the images into five thematic sections, each examining a different element within the creative process: casting, styling, location, props, and art direction. Intimate correspondence between the creative teams and examples of the behind-the-scenes stages in the development of the final work provide a rare glimpse into the processes of fashion image-making.

Exhibiting Photographers: Johnny Dufort, Charlotte Wales, Lena C. Emery, Brianna Capozzi, Tyrone Lebon, Marton Perlaki, Charlie Engman, Pascal Gambarte, Tim Elkaïm, Estelle Hanania, Andrea Artemisio, Reto Schmid, Bibi Cornejo Borthwick, Blommers and Schumm, Zoe Ghertner, Hanna Moon and Joyce NG, Coco Capitan, Suffo Moncloa, Durimel, Casper Sejersen, Tim Elkaïm.

Holly Hay is an independent image director and Art Buyer at Dazed Media Studio. 

Shonagh Marshall is an independent London-based fashion curator and archivist.