Glam

Glam: Expoloring constructions of fashion, glamour, and femininity through photography

She was the woman that all men wanted to help catch as she was falling. And I think that was a key to her success. You can see … the sadness, the erosion, the face that exists behind the glamour that's on the screen.”
- David Halberstam on Richard Avedon’s photograph, Marilyn, Actress, New York City, 1957

Glam will exhibit a broad range of work and nearly twenty photographs, including the work of Merry Alpern, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, John Baldessari, Lillian Bassman, Antonio Caballero, Larry Clark, George Friedman, Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Gerald Incandela, Annie Liebovitz, Irving Penn, and Cindy Sherman.

Exploring the history of glamour and fashion photography over a fifty year period, Glam begins with classic fashion images of the 1950s, with examples of work by Irving Penn and Lillian Bassman, who played a significant role in developing the look of fashion photography during the post war era. Their iconic shots of elegantly silhouetted women filled the pages of Vogue and Harper’s, and came to define our understanding of high fashion. Through the use of dramatic lighting and highly composed positioning, these early black and white photographs constructed an enduring sense of femininity.

The exhibition continues with presenting the work of photographers from the 1960s, a decade of radical change and transformation. Artists like Richard Avedon and Peter Hujar initiated and expansion of traditional conceptions of beauty and style. These works began to play with constructed notions of what precisely constituted glamour.  Perhaps the most iconic image of the period is Avedon’s photograph, Marilyn. The photograph captures the celebrity icon, who exemplifies glamour in American society, at a moment of fragile transition.  Through composition, setting, and pose, other photographers like Antonio Caballero and Diane Arbus explored similar ideas, with images that reflected an informal sensibility of the period.