Shots of style

Great fashion photographs chosen by David Bailey

 

Paolo Roversi has worked for Vogue, principally the British and Italian editions, since 1983, but his earliest published fashion photographs, for Dépêche Mode, date back to 1975. Born in Ravenna, he moved from Italy to Paris in 1973 at the suggestion of the photographer Peter Knapp. In Paris he had several assistant’s jobs, including a five-month spell with Laurence Sackmann. Since 1983 he has shot most of his work in colour, on 10 x 8 Polaroid film. His almost casual, intimate approach results in photographs which have a relaxed, understated character. Most recently he has been experimenting with tungsten spotlighting, using gels to mix a variety of different colours in one picture, and recalling related experiments made in the 1940s by Erwin Blumenfeld. He has also explored the use of ultra-violet light in a recent series for Tatler n°136 and, as with many of the younger photographers, one can eagerly look forward to where this kind of experimentation will lead fashion photography in the future.

 

 

Martin Harrison