FASHION Magazine

By Sven Schumann

Staunch fans of fashion photography view Paolo Roversi as a one-man revolution. One of the early adopters of the Polaroid, the Italian-born, Paris-based photographer saw the potential in the camera in the ’70s, years before many of his contemporaries did. Using the Polaroid’s filter and frame to accentuate fashion’s most immediate and delicate moments, Roversi’s style of shooting spawned a legion of admirers, including Carine Roitfeld and the late Herb Ritts. After working under Harper’s Bazaar lensman Laurence Sackman during his salad days, Roversi developed his own POV and began to shoot solo for Elle and Dépêche Mode. His work created such a domino effect in fashion photography that his style became the new industry standard in the ’80s and ’90s. Scrolling through paoloroversi.com offers a taste of his influential commercial campaigns for the houses of Giorgio Armani and Romeo Gigli, as well as his contributions to Paris, British and Italian editions of Vogue. Hot on the heels of launching his most recent book of photographs, Paolo Roversi (Thames & Hudson), the 64-year-old visionary sat down at the Camera Work Gallery in Berlin and spoke to FASHION about his iconic visions—past and present.

Read our interview »
View the photos »

When I was a newspaper reporter, the water-cooler chat often turned to “how we got the story.”

Investigative reporters would describe months spent wooing reluctant sources. Photographers would detail how they wound up in the right place at the right time. And foreign correspondents told tales of bribery and squalor.

Things aren’t quite so dramatic on the fashion beat, but we have our moments.

Runway photographer Peter Stigter, whose images you see throughout every issue of FASHION, often finds himself crammed onto a riser in show venues that are so stifling, the sweat from other shooters rains down on his head.

“Those girls started riots, because Chinese people thought they were ugly,” says Phillip Ing, vice-president of global retail and special events for M.A.C. He’s describing the public’s reaction to a series of images by Beijing-based photographer Chen Man, published in 2003 on the covers of Vision, an avant-garde Chinese fashion and art magazine. OK, so they weren’t actual riots, but there was plenty of hate mail; resistance is a common repercussion when one is blazing a beauty trail in a conservative country. Her images were arresting and fantastical, and they instantly garnered attention, as did the artist herself. At the time, she was only 23 and still in school, but she represented the next generation, who no longer felt constrained by many of the limitations their nation imposed.

Continue reading about Chen Man »
View the gallery »

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of legendary fashion photographer Lillian Bassman who succumbed to natural causes yesterday at the age of 94.

Bassman got her start as a photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, working there from the late ‘40s until the mid-‘60s. Her goal was always “to present women in the way I felt about them… feminine, serene, and elegant.”

Carine Roitfeld, the world’s most inimitably chic fashion editor, is back. She tells Rani Sheen what’s next for her.

When it was announced in December that Carine Roitfeld had stepped down as editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue, the fashion world erupted in speculation about what she’d do next. The answer, in part, lies in the book Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent ($110, Rizzoli New York), a mid-career retrospective of her most arresting shoots, notes from designers, and personal mementos. It’s a satisfying read because there is such a fascination with Roitfeld, the coolest woman in any front row. We asked her what else she’s been up to.

One month, one bajillion photo exhibits. What to see? Here, I’ve picked a handful of shows I think you should like. For so much more, go play around the official site, scotiabankcontactphoto.com.

One understands the loveliness of the calla lily, its austerity offset with swooping curves. Keep in mind Diane Kruger, sleek in stark white Calvin Klein, at the Met gala in May, and you have a picture of how the flower fits into the Calvin Klein brand and became the inspiration for Beauty, its latest scent, for which the actress is the face.

The fragrance launched in Toronto last week with a soirée at the Terrace Room at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art.  To celebrate the launch, FASHION (sponsor of the event) commissioned five photographers–Caitlin Cronenberg, Karen Roze, Jody Rogac, Natasha V. and Davida Nemeroff–to interpret the calla lily in their own style.

This year, the Magenta Foundation has taken their popular Flash Forward competition, which highlights the talent of up-and-coming photographers from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K, and turned it into a festival. The gallery show has been expanded to six curated exhibits and they’ve added workshops, lectures and panel discussions on such pictorial topics as […]

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Recently listed on the Toronto Star’s 30 best dressed in Toronto list, it’s almost a surprise that photographer Caitlin Cronenberg’s (yes, daughter of film auteur David) debut book is strictly limited to people wearing nothing (or almost nothing) at all. The 134 photographs of Poser ($45, caitlincronenberg.com/poser) explore the connection between the lens and the […]

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After an influx of underage models, it’s a refresher to see some older talent in campaigns and editorials. The Fall Louis Vuitton ads feature a trio of supermodels well out of their teens (Natalia Vodianova, 28, Karen Elson, 31, and Christy Turlington, 41), while the 39-year-old Kirsten Owen made a triumphant appearance on the Joe Fresh runway at LG Fashion Week in Toronto.

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin recently photographed Mississauga’s own Daria Werbowy, who at 26 is hardly geriatric, but certainly not a kid, for Yves Saint Laurent’s fall campaign, which features her elegantly perched at the bottom of a lavish staircase. Looking at the adverts it’s no mystery why the pair now refuse to photograph anyone under the age of 18–a move they made about five years ago.

The Culturites are currently aboard the Silver Spirit, Silversea Cruises’ newest ship. First port of call was Venice, followed by Croatia and Greece. So far we can’t complain given we have a butler looking after our every whim, 24 hour room service, Frette linens, an in-room entertainment system featuring hundreds of complimentary movies on demand, champagne around the clock and 5-star cuisine. (You can follow our adventure at thesocietyglobal.tumblr.com.)

One thing we can’t leave home without when travelling are our Canon PowerShot cameras, but what we’ve learned from past experience is that snapshots are one thing, good documentary photos from your trip are another.

So before we set sail, we asked our dear friend and one of our city’s most talented young photographers (who just shot one Culturite’s wedding in Bahamas), Tory Zimmerman (toryzimmerman.com), to give us six tips to help us capture the best for our (and your) travel photography collection:

Don’t take photos—make photos! Play around with your camera’s manual settings and get to know its pre-programmed ones.  Most digital cameras (even point and shoots) have exposure settings you can play with, have manual focus allocation points and settings that you can employ. Try the sepia toning, try underexposing, try longer exposures. Don’t let the camera be the brain–you can make your own decisions!

As Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens is currently without a fashion house (rumours of a partnership with Tory Burch’s ex notwithstanding), we’re going to have to content ourselves with his luscious new book, Olivier Theyskens: The Other Side of the Picture (US$120, Assouline). Filled with 150 illustrations and images–shot by French photographer Julien Claessens–and written with […]

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