Weird Beauty at the ICP
Words by Lizzie Simner
The International Centre for Photography was set up in 1974 by Cornell Capa and inspired by four men- his brother Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, David Seymour ‘Chim’ and Dan Weiner- all of whom lost their lives on photographic assignments in the 1950’s.
The ‘Weird Beauty’ exhibition displays original fashion prints alongside magazine spreads. Plastered across the high white walls and organised in squares are the pages of fashion magazines- Pop, Vogue Homme, Numero- but the photographs themselves are anything but flat. The eyes of a hundred models in various guises follow you around the room. In ‘Mademoiselle’, 2008, Karl Lagerfeld’s styling bursts out at you from the walls, as a model with Galliano eyebrows and medusa hair apparently caught mid-toss channels her fiery gaze. A made-up clown face is bright and almost frighteningly vivid. In ‘Fetish’, Carine Roitfeld captures Heidi Slimane’s designs for Vogue Homme- these moments of excess and abandonment to awaken your inner Dorian Gray now seem almost sad- in the wake of recession it almost feels possible to feel sorry for the aesthetic greed of the fashion world.
John Baldessari and Mario Sorrenti create a simpler picture with a YSL Lurex blue dress, primary cut out shapes and colours, and high octane pigment prints- this is pure fun, we are being told, and you WILL enjoy yourselves. Some prints bring sexual ambiguity into play. In ‘Batty Boy’ for Arena Homme, golden girl Katie Grand edits Solve Sundsbo’s theatrical garments which find a masculine strength within delicate folds of material, the lipsticked male model stares out into the camera, daring us to laugh. A woman’s headpiece by Stephen Jones for Giles re-emphasises this point. These men are not just ambiguous – they are unavailable, and they are too good for you, thanks very much.
In ‘Size Hero’ for POP magazine Beth Ditto is styled as an old New York lady, a great grand dame, with heavy make-up and uptown tweeds. Here she is in a hotel room, looking wistful, now on the bus, the determined message of a strong woman is clear- but the props lend these photos touches of reality. They are a picture of the aspirational dreams and glamour of working women in cities worldwide- despite the renaissance beauty of the male model sitting on the seat behind her.
‘This is not a fashion photograph’, in the adjoining room, is an exhibition guest curated by Vince Aletti that aims to show unintentional style, photographs that were not intended for fashion magazines, that are stylish nonetheless. It holds up an adjusted mirror to the viewer, to remodify the attractions of normal nine to five lives.
Stephen Shore shows us a behind the scenes glance in ‘Paraphernalia’s Opening and Show, 1966’, young men in polo necks and models with cropped hair relax in a brightly lit environment, unposed and gorgeous.
Street shots also provide insight into the correlative relationship between economy and style. Loose suits and hats cover the bodies of young workers making their way in the forties, and in the same decade heavy square gems adorn the ears of actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hoppler in Weegee’s shot ‘Hopper’s Topper’, an unpractical hat gracing her head as her face is pulled into a mask of rudely cut drama.
Carrie Mae Weems shows the private styles of the domestic and the interior. A print from her 1990 ‘Kitchen Table’ series depicts a young black couple smoking at the kitchen table, the woman in a black jacket with a sharp and powerful haircut, an ashtray between them.
Both collections show style in many forms, intentional and unintentional, public and personal, the similarity being the statement. As a form of self-expression, the clothes here tell volumes about the people in them, symbolically revealing as much as they cover. As curator, Aletti states that this collection is ‘proof that genres have always been porous, and that style is everywhere you look.’
The ICP itself offers us more than just beauty- as a school it is something substantial, something to fall back on that is real and has depth. The ICP is a rare reflection of the city in which it stands; it displays the results of human skill and industry from under a glittering cloak of glamour- in a place where style and substance can firmly hold hands.
Posted Thu, March 19, 2009