The Bite Magazine Issue 17

Among the most celebrated photographers in fashion and art, Jada Brookes discovers how Peter Lindbergh started the supermodel era and the creative way he captured his subjects in black and white. Peter Lindbergh A Different Vision on Fashion Photography I t has to be said that German photographer Peter Lindbergh sig- nificantly changed the world of fashion photography when he shot five young models in downtown New York City in 1989. Not only did he produce the iconic British Vogue January 1990 cover but he also helped birth the notion of the supermodels as well as ushered in a new fashion era and an understanding of female beauty. To coincide with his major retrospec- tive at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands earlier this year, the book Peter Lindbergh: A Different Vision on Fashion Photography was produced and features more than 400 images taken from four decades of Lindbergh’s pho- tography. It also celebrates his unique and game-changing tactics along with the new romantic and narrative vision that it brought to art and fashion. In the foreword, Emily Ansenk, Director of Kunstal Rotterdam explains how she was advised by Thierry-Maxime Loriot who curated ‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier’ exhibition and is also the author of this book, to study the photography of Peter Lindbergh. She recalls that she had actually grown up with his images in an era where “everybody danced to the legendary clip ‘Freedom 90’ that George Michael made in 1990 inspired by Lindbergh’s pioneering January Vogue UK cover” and “all the girls wanted to look like Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista” bite book review