Imperfect Beauty

Published to coincide with an exhibition in the Canon Photography Gallery at the V&A, this book looks at the work of key British photographers, art directors and stylists who changed the face of fashion photography in the 1990s. The images, chosen by the photographers themselves, demonstrate how, during the early 1990s, British photographers, stylists and art directors ruptured the style of fashion photography, by using ordinary domestic locations, second-hand clothing and unconventional looking models. Quickly labelled "grunge photography", this became the new fashion imagery of the decade. The illustrations show how the distinctions between editorial and advertising, photography and fine art and commercial styles became blurred while the growth in the number of magazines and the rise of the internet increased the scope and availability of fashion imagery. Through interviews and photographs, a style of photography emerges which has a harder edge and challenges previously accepted stereotypes of fashion and glamour.