Origins of fashion photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio or an outside setting. It originates from the clothing and fashion industries, and while some of fashion photography has been elevated as art, it is still primarily used for clothing, perfumes and beauty products.

Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity fair, or Elle. It has grown into becoming a necessary way for designers to get their work out to the public. Fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories. Fashion photography has been in existence since the earliest days of photography. The oldest surviving photograph taken on camera was made by Nicephore Niepce in 1826,but people would soon use photography to present costumes and garb. Beginning in 1856, Virginia Oldoini, Countess Di Castiglione, a Tuscan noblewoman at the court of Napoleon III directed imperial court photographer, Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of her life for the camera. Many of the photographs depict her in official court attire while other outfits ranged from the theatrical to the absurd, making her arguably the first fashion model.