The body and its service to, and disruption of clothing is the focus of a new fashion photography exhibition, featuring the likes of Brianna Capozzi, Marton Perlaki, Coco Capitan, Charlie Engman and Johnny Dufort.
Spanning fashion editorial from 2010 to 2017, not chronologically but through themes such as styling and casting, it is the first installment in a three-part creative collaboration between Curator Shonagh Marshall, formerly Curator at Somerset House, and Holly Hay – an image director and Art Buyer at Dazed Media Studio, sponsored by THE OUTNET.
This process began with Holly pulling together 150 images from the magazine archives of AnOther, i-D, Interview, The Gentlewoman, Double and Self Service, all concerned with the body, gesture and pose. Pooling their skillsets – Holly’s commissioning of contemporary photography, and Shonagh’s curation of 2 and 3D space – the pair selected 42 for the show. Of this, Shonagh says, “I was really ruthless. I don’t know a lot of photographers, I don’t have the same relationships with them as Holly does. But if you frame something and put it on a wall it becomes something completely different, instantly. So, we had to think about what could stand up to that.”

The final selection of images speaks of a new wave of photographers interrupting fashion imagery by using the body, often distorted – be that through camera angle, pose or composition.