Phillip Wong Photography
Fashion Photography
The Art and the Commerce
The Art And Commerce
of Fashion Photography
Photography may be an artform, or a tool, in itself. But unlike painting or writing, it creates only what actually exists. There are other artforms that can leave reality and deal with imagination.So when photography crosses into fashion, landscape, architecture, nudes, dance, portraits, it has to begin with what actually exists, and then look to the looker’s perception of that reality.Fashion was a subject that I wasn’t raised with, but I had a sense of, from my father’s architectural calling, and his assimilation of the Bauhaus of Mies van der Rohe, and the philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright – “Less is more” (Mies) and “Form follows function” (Wright).But I was drawn into the melding of fashion and glamour and story of Helmut Newton. And the poetic composition of Akira Kurosawa.
As a tool, photography tells a story that crosses language barriers, boundaries of time and culture. It is immediate and can be lasting. Understanding how the impact can work, gives it greater power.Editorial photography, should be like film, telling a clear, decisive, story that, from the photographer’s place, captures the emotion and thought, and from the audience’s position, discovers feeling, and enlightenment.Fashion Editorial, is not JUST about the designer, the clothing, but who and what and where and how and when of the story – and how the audience feels (and later thinks). It is about character, time, place, and forever. Good stories never end. Everything else, is forgotten.
But photography as a tool, in anything, has to serve a function, in the most basic of situations. That does not mean it has to be done without thought, purpose, intent, and an awareness.
To show a designer’s designs, we have to KNOW what the designer does, why they do it, what they intend, intuitively.
To show a Brand, there is an identity, what connects the brand, to the audience. But in the e-commerce world, there also has to be an understanding of the customer who needs to see, understand, something they are taking a chance on.
