It wouldn’t surprise me if there are more examples of the fashion world borrowing the Flandrin pose but this is the only one I’ve seen so far, part of a 1998 art-inspired photo series by Mario Sorrenti for Yves Saint-Laurent. There don’t seem to be any larger copies available, unfortunately.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The recurrent pose archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Last Suppers and last straws
• The last circle of the Inferno
Some of the pictures in the set are somehow reminiscent of Floria Sigismondi’s only far more down to earth. I can’t help but make so many comparison’s, most of what catches my eye here reminds me of other things I like, but I guess these works were made as tributes anyway.
Her work’s a lot better really, since it’s more personal. The trouble with fashion photography—and any other ad art, for that matter—is it always has to emphasis the product, in this case the clothes. Sometimes ads can be both ads and art but they usually seem more like art once a great deal of time has elapsed and the product is no longer familiar.
No argument here. ‘Down to earth’ is rarely admirable in an artistic sense. I hardly ever see fashion photography since I don’t read magazines that show such ads, and I tend to avoid malls and shopping centers. So on an occasion that I see ad art of this nature I hardly ever know what the product is, besides something otherwise boring being sold using provocative aesthetic.