Why are there so few female fashion photographers?

[fashionista-ta]

nymag

From an interview with model and photographer Louise Parker:

Do you think that your photography degree helps you with modeling?
I think it does. It definitely makes me more interested in what I’m doing, and being able to work with photographers that I respect and admire has been a really cool experience. But I’m still trying to figure out what my photography has to do with their photography. It’s really different, because I was never really interested in fashion photography.

 

[iluvjeisa]

Speaking of female Newtonesque photographers - the last Numéro cover with Sigrid by Katha Rahlwes:

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f7...gren-katja-rahlwes-196173-4.html#post11184235

 

[Zeitgeist]

Ah well, I don't like that cover too much, but I think that has nothing to do with the fact it's photographed by a woman...

I made another observation: In the field of amateur fashion photography, in my opinion it's the female photographers who shoot better pictures, if you can generalize that. Male amateur "fashion" photography is often tacky and tastlessly oversexed....

 

[quinten]

At least the very first fashion photographer ever was female, Clementina Fleeming: http://www.vintag.es/2012/10/early-fashion-photographs-by-clementina.html (Pictures between 1850-1865)

Found these pictures a few days ago, pretty amazing if you realize she had no examples, she photographed her daughters in different outfits and 'different' poses, this kind of posing was very uncommon at the time, she probably was the only one doing so. And she only had one shot at a time with these wet plates, a few shots a day at most. No light meters, no polaroid previews, all in all an amazing photographer.

 

[YoninahAliza]

^Wow, Quinten! Thanks for sharing the link with us. I hadn't herd of Clementina, but her work is really eye-opening. As well as being beautiful images these photographs gives us a glimpse into the lives of women during the Victorian era, from the eyes of women (which can sometimes feel unheard of). And it's fun to see what early photography was like too, when everything was new, and you had to work so hard to take a photograph before you even took a picture.

 

[starsnosigns]

I've seen a lot of wanna-be female fashion photographers online but not many professional ones...look up community.livejournal.com/blackcigarette and you will see a ton. Also look at all those blogs full of wanna be fashion photographers, there's a TON out there, only not professional. And the art is really beautiful, too I don't know why there are not many who are professional, I think it's just that women prefer to focus on the clothing than on the photography itself. We are all shopaholics at heart!