 Kate Corinne Day Fifteen Gimpel Fils is pleased to announce an exhibition of Corinne Day's iconic photographs of Kate Moss. Published in "The Face" in 1990 these images changed the course of fashion photography. Day's pioneering contribution to photography was to forego the staged glamour of the fashion world, preferring to make images that remained true to the young, uninhibited teenage girl they depicted. Corinne Day's extraordinary documentary approach to fashion photography produced exceptional images. They show teenage femininity as awkward and beautiful. Taken during a day trip to Camber Sands, Day's photographs were seized upon as the antidote to the overindulgent "supermodel in exotic location" fashion spreads which were all too apparent in the glossy magazines of the power-suited 1980s. Day preferred to challenge preconceived notions of beauty and redefined the concerns and range of the fashion photograph. Speaking for a generation, Corinne Day captured a mood of post-Thatcherite Britain. Dispensing with the theatrical props of the fashion shoot, and placing her models in everyday places and scenarios, she reinvigorated fashion imagery. Featuring Moss in a crown of feathers, grinning and squinting into the sun, Day announced a radical, democratic new direction for fashion photography. Her low budget images of apparently ordinary kids were more like documentary photographs than anything that had gone before. These arresting, offhand, images gave a face to a generation, marrying optimistic youth with gritty realism. Day was making images that spoke directly to readers of The Face, iD, and later, Dazed and Confused, because she herself was part of that culture. By pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in the fashion pages, Day paved the way for numerous other photographers, capturing the zeitgeist of early 90s Britain. Despite criticism, Day remained true to her vision of capturing beauty in the imperfect, and these photographs of Kate Moss were shocking in their purity and honesty. Moss recalled, "I was just having a laugh. Corinne just wanted to bring out everything that I hated when I was 15. My bow legs, the mole on my breast, the way I laughed". These images of Kate are extraordinary in their vitality and vulnerability; they depict a girl on the brink of an incredible journey. Exhibition: 21 February - 1 April 2006 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10 am - 5.30 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm Gimpel Fils 30 Davies Street GB-London, W1K 4NB Telephone +44 20 7493 2488 Fax +44 20 7629 5732 Email info@gimpelfils.com www.gimpelfils.com |
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