That photoless Vogue issue

One of seven Vogue Italia cover options, a painting by Vanessa Beecroft, January 2020. Vanessa Beecroft uses painting as well as performance as her chosen medium to change our perception of the body in public spaces. This is her first artistico format into fashion, in her words.

When the news of the latest Vogue Italia issue came out, everybody shared it on social media or, at the minimum, read about it. It made that momentous splash due to the promise that no photography was employed in its making – and that was an added feature to make its production environmentally sustainable.

It is frankly the first time anyone has made the case of photography being an environmentally unfriendly medium. After all, it doesn’t employ harmful chemicals anymore, nor does it necessarily waste paper. If it does, that applies to art photography, not the commercial means of diffusion of information and persuasion. However, as director Emanuele Farneti explains in his editorial statement, a Vogue photoshoot implies hundreds of people traveling thousands of miles to make it happen. Painting, drawing and other tabletop artmaking only requires staying put.

Fashion photography in a new light (Bruce Weber at the Dallas Contemporary)

 

Lonneke Engel for Versus, 1996, gracefully shot by Bruce Weber

Bruce Weber, a noted fashion photographer with a long and distinguished career, is having a retrospective exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary. It is fascinating for many reasons, but first of all because an exhibition venue known mainly for installations and projections has dedicated almost its entire gigantic space to a solo show of this kind of “traditional” photography. But also – and especially – because it offers an unusual view of fashion photography as it is.

Halloween Portraits in Dallas

It’s that time of the year again, Halloween! when people get to dress up in a different persona for a day, try out being something else and have unrestricted, unpenalized fun. While portraits are – supposedly – a truthful reflection of a person, Halloween portraits are an imaginative play with that idea, reflecting something totally made up or perhaps the opposite: the real, hidden self 🙂 The European tradition has the Carnival for that, and America has Halloween. Everybody needs an occasion to turn themselves creatively upside down.

We are lucky here in Dallas that the Halloween dress-up festivities are so popular and creative and I love taking advantage of that. Halloween portraits are my favorite to do. Here is a brief list of locations and occasions for them: