Fashion Photography | What It Is and How It Shapes a Brand

High Fashion Dance Photography with Annie Mac

Fashion Photography: What It Is and How It Shapes a Brand

Fashion photography isn’t what you think it is. It isn’t just capturing clothing or accessories. It’s about telling a story, embodying a brand’s identity, and influencing cultural trends.

Since black and white photos, brands have taken full advantage of the power of fashion photography, and your brand should also.

To learn more about fashion photography, its history, and how it shapes brands, see the guide below.

What is Fashion Photography?

Fashion photography is a specialised genre of photography that focuses on showcasing clothing, accessories, and fashion-related products.

A lot of the time, fashion photography is a form of advertising and commercial photography, as it’s used to sell products, a lifestyle, or a vision.

The History of Fashion Photography

Over the years, fashion photography has changed. Since the beginning, new styles, technologies, and cultural influences have shaped the fashion photography industry we know today.

Early Beginnings (1850s-1910s)

The roots of fashion photography go all the way back to the 1850s, when photographers were taken to document the latest trends for Parisian fashion houses.

It wasn’t until the 1880s, however, that these images became widely accessible due to printing technology advancements.

By the late 19th century, this started to change. Fashion, theatre, and portraiture photography started to blend together due to celebrities like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

The Rise of Fashion Magazines (1920s-1930s)

Due to the change in accessibility in the late 19th century, fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar started to become popular.

Adolphe De Meyer, who’s often credited as the first ‘official’ fashion photographer, focused on high fashion during this time. He was also known to have more of a ‘romantic’ style.

It wasn’t until Edward Steichen came into the picture (get it) that more variety started hitting fashion magazines. His work focused on modern women, showcasing their freedom and self-worth through the clothing they wore.

Post-War Innovation (1940s-1960s)

World War II had a huge impact on fashion photography. Resources were limited, and fashion wasn’t popular, but passionate photographers found a way around the issue.

A notable photographer who adapted to the circumstances was Louise Dahl-Wolfe. She was known for her straightforward fashion photography and was the first photographer to use colour photography with Kodachrome.

After the war, fashion changed forever. It took on a different approach by being more dynamic and expressive. Richard Avedon and Irving Peen, two American photographers, mostly drove this, turning New York into the new global centre for fashion photography, overtaking Paris.

Contemporary Fashion Photography (1970s-present)

From the 1970s and onwards, fashion photography has changed into an extremely experimental and creative field.

It also became globalised. With social platforms on the rise, fashion photography has been the go-to method for brand advertising and expression.

Now, it’s something most brands need to do—fashion brand or not. They’re images of a lifestyle, images that represent a person, culture, or interests.

Types of Fashion Photography

There are many different types of fashion photography, too many to mention. However, so you’re able to get an overview of the different types, here are the main ones:

Editorial Fashion Photography

Often a magazine-specific style of photography, editorial fashion photography uses fashion to convey broader narratives, themes, or social commentary.

Mostly, it’s a more conceptual and artistic style than other forms of fashion photography, providing brands with an opportunity to stand out as trendsetters or cultural commentators.

High Fashion Photography

As you can imagine, high fashion photography is often linked to luxury brands. This style of fashion photography uses extravagancy, aiming to present luxury through imagery.

Think of brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and so forth. These are some of the biggest names in high fashion, and they’ve all mastered high fashion photography.

Runway Fashion Photography

Runway fashion photography has been a big part of fashion photography since the 1860s. To this day, it’s still a huge part of fashion culture, especially because of popular events like the New York Fashion Week.

During these events, fashion photographers are used to document and advertise. They capture the latest fashion innovations to show new inventions in fashion magazines, on social media, etc.

Commercial Fashion Photography

Commercial photography solely focuses on advertising – It can also be called advertising photography. The goal here is to sell.

Sell the product through photography by creating a range of photos. These include product photos all the way to lifestyle photos that highlight the feel, design, and cultural fit of the fashion item.

Beauty Photography

Fashion isn’t just clothing. It’s everything on a person—their hair, skincare, makeup, and so forth. And beauty photography is what focuses on these areas.

It’s often used alongside fashion photography. For instance, for an earring company, a makeup brand, and so forth. They can use beauty photography to showcase the quality or lifestyle of their products.

Lifestyle Photography

Lifestyle photography is all about coming away from the studios and into the real-world environment. It’s meant to portray a brand’s clothing or accessories as part of everyday life.

This type of photography attracts viewers differently. It shows them what the product represents and how it’ll look on them in their life and culture.

Portrait Photography

Portrait photography captures a model or subject and has a strong focus on facial expressions and styling. A lot of the time, this is a form of beauty photography, as it helps capture the minor details of a model’s face.

Fashion e-Commerce Photography

Fashion e-commerce photography is a commercial-based style of fashion photography. It’s used for online stores and helps potential customers get a clear understanding of what they’re purchasing through detailed imagery.

A lot of the time, these are either lifestyle photos or just plain white-background photos. It could also be a mixture of the two. Whatever works for the brand and how they want to sell their products online.

Why is Fashion Photography Important for Brands?

Without fashion photography, brands wouldn’t be able to communicate their products, culture, or differences. It can help them:

Build a Legacy

Fashion photography provides a very distinct visual identity that distinguishes brands in a market. It allows them to ‘break through the noise’ and get noticed by their target consumer.

This legacy-building technique dates years back also. Chanel’s “Little Black Dress” and Dior’s “New Look” campaign are two perfect examples.

These images were taken in the 1900s, and they didn’t only sell the product, they sold a story. They sold a look, feel, and culture that’s still spoken about today.

Tell a Visual Story

Studies have shown that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. This, in and of itself, says enough about the power it has in storytelling.

Alone, a single story can speak a thousand words. Not only this, but it can also speak thousands of words in a matter of seconds.

This, in today’s social media-driven life, is extremely powerful. Instead of writing pages of text to ‘persuade’ a customer, you can just use a single image.

Create Emotional Connections

90% of information that’s transmitted to the brain is visual. That’s what makes fashion photography so important.

It’s not just an image. There’s more to it. It’s an image that can evoke an emotional response from the viewers. It’s an image that connects with users, which can increase engagement and conversion rates.

Become Trendsetters and Industry Influencers

Fashion photography documents trends, creating an industry influence on how people dress, act, and feel.

Fashion weeks are a perfect example of this. For instance, when we went to the Dubai Fashion Week in 2024, we documented some of the latest and upcoming fashion trends happening worldwide.

FosterBrand Recognition and Recall

Photography in general, not just fashion photography, allows the picture-superiority effect. This is because more people tend to remember pictures better than words.

It’s a phenomenon that’s well documented in cognitive psychology, and it helps imprint a brand, lifestyle, or feeling into your target audience’s mind.

Key Features of Great Fashion Photography

Lighting and Composition

At the heart of great fashion photography is lighting and composition.

How light interacts with the environment, the product, and the model defines the entire mood of the image.

It doesn’t matter where you’re shooting, either. In a controlled environment, like a photo studio, or in an urban area, like a street, lighting can make or break an image.

Composition, or the way the photo is framed, angled, and balanced, is used to direct the user’s attention to a specific element.

This, paired with quality lighting and a professional photographer, ensures that the photo has a story and direction. It lifts certain areas of the images while lowering others, ensuring the viewer understands the purpose of the photo.

Creative Direction

The creative direction is the general vision of the shoot. It involves a goal that must be met in order to fulfil certain creative objectives.

Most of the time, this is to attract certain people or target audiences. For example, with high fashion, the goal is to target those who can purchase high fashion. For motorcycle clothes, the goal is to target those who own motorcycles, etc.

As you can see, this will impact the creative direction. For the motorcycle example above, you may include a motorcycle. This will attract the interest of the target audience.

Simply put, strong creative direction ensures a message is heard, engaging the audience to view the picture, make a decision, etc.

Model Selection and Styling

Selecting the right model and style is what really brings the concept to life.

The model’s physicality, facial expressions, etc., should all complement the themes, clothing, and creative direction.

The same goes for the styling. It should be styled in a way that resonates with the target audience while fulfilling the brand’s goals.

Great fashion photography includes great models and style. It’s a huge missing piece of a very big puzzle.

Post-Production

Though overlooked, post-production is where the image truly comes to life.

Think of it as the finishing touches. It’s when retouching, colour correction, and enhancing comes into play to improve the overall quality of the image.

Fashion photographers should excel in post-production. It turns a decent image into a masterpiece – something that stands out from its competition

Conclusion

As you can see, fashion photography is much more than you think. It’s not only about capturing clothing and accessories. It’s about selling a lifestyle, a culture, and a way of life.

Through images, fashion photography can create lasting impressions, set trends, and, most importantly, foster brand recognition.

For brands, investing in this type of photography is an investment in their identity, storytelling, and long-term success.

If you’re based in Dubai or the UAE and are looking to up your fashion photography game, let Masoud Raoufi’s team help.

We’ve been serving the UAE market for over 12 years and have helped countless brands attract and retain engagement through imagery. For more information about how we can help, contact us.

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