The Reality of Fashion

As I begin my journey to learn what fashion photography is all about I must be honest about something. I immediately feel the need to protest against it. This may be because of my experience as an assistant at fashion week in New York, where I had a wake up call forcing me to recognize that it is not as glamorous as it may appear. It could also be my background in Women's Studies and the need to separate the idea of social construct and biology.

Its not that I don't like fashion. I have always had a passion for orchestrating just the right outfit that would suit my mood and make me feel like I was walking on a cloud or down the runway. However, when I flip through magazines I see models that look uncomfortable and hungry. I don't care what the media tells us about more curvy women finding their way into fashion because there are still a lot of models that the average woman has a hard time relating to. I guess my point in all this is that I need to take a different approach when it comes to photographing fashion. I am not going to call it "plus size" fashion but rather I want to take on real life fashion. I want to allow more people, woman and men, to relate to the photos. I understand the when you look at a photo it can be a mirror reflecting your own ideas or life back at you. Its okay to have photos that are not about the viewer and fashion photography does not have to reflect this concept. It is about something more than that and I understand where many photographers direct their focus: selling an image. That is partly why I wish to take on the challenge of a more realistic fashion. Something that hasn't been done as frequently. I suppose that this is my quest to do exactly that.