In the highly emancipated and globally inter-connected that world we live in, there are as many voluble admirers as there are severe detractors for the prolific use of sexuality and nudity in expressing the image of women in fashion photography. No medium blurs the margins between creativity and insult as finely as the medium of fashion photography. The portrayal of women, with focus on every bit of their body and selves, has been at the core of fashion photography for significant decades now. Opinions range from vituperative to pure admiration at this obsessive engagement with portrayal of women. To understand this imagery today, it’s interesting to travel to yesterday to know how it began and evolved – both the celebration and objectification …show more content…
The years , 1960-80 have been called the years of ‘sexual revolution’ in fashion photography. According to Lina Salete Chaves, from the University of South Florida, "With the popularity of Playboy, Sex and Single Girl, and Cosmopolitan, these magazines sent women new cultural affirmations about their sexuality that tied together ideas of individualism and consumerism to sexual …show more content…
(unlike Jergen) by models Rie Rasmussen , Jamie Peck, Gabriela Johansson. Leading model Dunja Knezevic called his work ‘pornography passed off as high fashion’.There have been vocal accusations of ‘objectification’ of women in Tellers ‘ fashion photography (Tom Ford for Men cologne for men) Similarly Jergen’s work for Marc Jacob’s ‘Oh Lola’, fragrance featuring nubile Fanning Dakota drew heavy criticism too. Artforum’s Jeffrey Kastner called him a promoter of “consumerist erotica.” Juergen has been quick to deny allegations of ‘sensationalism’ most emphatically and say, “Do I consider my work to be sensationalist ?, I won’t even have that conversation”, Teller on the other hand ,appears quite unruffled by such allegations.Terry says unabashedly, “Like Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, and so many others before me, sexual imagery has always been a part of my photography” .Its no wonder then that his project, ‘Breaking in the Carpet, features ‘“hundreds of images of me just coming on different rugs in different hotel rooms.” And his book, Terryworld, is replete with imagery of sex, nudity and