This Is Not a Fashion Photograph

This Is Not a Fashion Photograph, organized by guest curator Vince Aletti, is an exhibition drawn largely from the permanent collection of ICP that looks at the non-fashion sources of contemporary fashion photography. Because many young fashion photographers are more interested in authenticity than artifice, they are looking closely at work by Weegee, Lisette Model, André Kertész, and Danny Lyon. It may not have been the intention of these photographers to make fashion images, but their work touches on style as a means of personal expression. With photographs by Gordon Parks, Bruce Davidson, Walker Evans, Samuel Fosso, Doris Ulmann, Mark Cohen, Marc Riboud, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ben Shahn, and others.

None of the photographs in the exhibition were taken with the intent of making a fashion photograph, but none of them would look out of place in a present-day fashion magazine. Taken together, they suggest the broad range of nonfashion influences on contemporary fashion photography.