Tracing Fashion Photography’s Journey to Becoming an Art Form

In 1988, Peter Lindbergh photographed a crush of supermodels, including Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, roughhousing on a beach in Los Angeles. He may not have known it at the time, but that image, titled Santa Monica, would come to epitomize Lindbergh’s artistic style and change not just the course of his career, but the history of fashion photography writ large. Now, that photograph is one of over 100 works on view at London’s Saatchi Gallery in the exhibition “Beyond Fashion,” a survey that features contributions from Ellen von Unwerth, Miles Aldridge, Inez and Vinoodh, Viviane Sassen, and many more groundbreaking photographers. Taken as a whole they represent the far-flung places the visionary image-makers have taken fashion photography.

The show is split into four sections: Allure, Fantasy, Realism, and finally, Surrealism, where Saatchi has mounted works by emerging photographers. As viewers wind through the gallery, they witness the evolution of the art of fashion photography—its transformation from marketing materials for catalogs to a venerable art form of its own. During the 40th anniversary of London Fashion Week, the exhibition feels like a real celebration. Below, scroll through a preview of “Beyond Fashion,” which runs through September 8.