THE PERSUASIVE IMAGE

commercial photography as art

photographers who combine art and commerce

PAUL OUTERBRIDGE

In 1922 Outerbridge produced this commercial still life photograph for a clothing client. It was published in the fashionable Vanity Fair magazine.

In recent years, the photograph has been perceived as an important example of modernist art and in the year 2000 was sold at Christies auction for a large sum.

Paul Outerbridge, Ide Collar, 1922 advertisement for Vanity Fair magazine,

Christies auction price: $314,000Paul Outerbridge, Ide Collar, 1922 advertisement for Vanity Fair magazine,

EDWARD STEICHEN

In 1923 photographer Edward Steichen became the highest paid photographer in the world.

He worked in fashion, celebrity portraiture, industrial and advertising photography.

Steichen had been an artist and helped to establish photography as a fine art in the early 1900s

Edward Steichen, Douglass lighters, 1928

Edward Steichen, Douglass lighters, 1928

In the 1920s, consumers were introduced to the new styles of modern and design.

They came into contact with examples of Cubism, Futurism and Art Deco design.

Edward Steichen, Douglass lighters, 1928

Luigi Rossolo, Dynamism of an Automobile 1912

Futurist painting

A.M.Cassandre, Nord Express 1927

Art Deco poster

Steichen’s style in the 1920s and 30s was dynamic and energetic.

Compare this modernist photograph of a bridge to his earlier Pictorialist photograph from 1903 …

Edward Steichen, 1931George Washington Bridge,

Edward Steichen, Brooklyn Bridge, 1903 Edward Steichen, 1931George Washington Bridge,

Edward Steichen, Brooklyn Bridge, 1903 Edward Steichen, The Flatiron 1904

Steichen took elegant portraits of celebrities which were published in Vogue and other magazines

Edward Steichen, Margaret Horan, c1931

Edward Steichen, Margaret Horan, c1931Edward Steichen, Joan Crawford, c1931

Edward Steichen, Anna Mae Wong, c1931Edward Steichen, Joan Crawford, c1931

Edward Steichen, Anna Mae Wong, c1931Edward Steichen, Anna Mae Wong, c1931

Steichen experimented with abstracted patterns in still life photographs. They were commissioned by the Stehli Silk company to be used as fabric patterns.

Edward Steichen, 1926photograph for Stehli Silks pattern

Edward Steichen, 1927Ad for Evening shoes by Vida Moore,

He was one of the first fashion photographers, and is credited with establidshing the new genre through his work for Vogue in the 1920s.

Edward Steichen, 1927Ad for Evening shoes by Vida Moore

Edward Steichen, Tamaris with Art Deco scarf, 1926

Edward Steichen, Vogue page, 1920sEdward Steichen, Tamaris with Art Deco scarf, 1926

Edward Steichen, nude photograph, 1936

Steichen is also given credit for helping to establish the new genre of advertising photography.

Edward Steichen, nude photograph, 1936 Edward Steichen, Portrait of Lee MillerAd for Kotex sanitary products

Edward Steichen, Lee Miller, 1928 Edward Steichen, Portrait of Lee MillerAd for Kotex sanitary products

“The popularisation of Freudian ideas and the romanticisation of the photographer as creative artist justified Anton Bruehl’s photographic distortions to illustrate a larger psychological reality: the inferiority complex.”

Photograph by Anton Bruehl, 1932

Salvador Dali, detail from The Lugubrious Game, 1929

Photograph by Anton Bruehl, 1932

Photography dramatises the advertising pitch

“Buyers do not question photographic evidence of merit. They believe what the camera tells them because they know that nothing tells the truth so well.”

Photographers Association of America c1932

Advertisement for Listerine

Photography played a role in advertising scare campaigns through the use of dramatic documentary photographs.

Photography played a role in advertising scare campaigns through the use of dramatic documentary photographs.

Transport Accident Commisson billboard, 1990s

Following World War II, modern art from Paris made an impact on commercial photography and graphic design.

Picasso, portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

Picasso, portrait of Dora Maar, 1937 Erwin Blumenfeld,Alexander Lieberman art director, 1945

Erwin Blumenfeld,Alexander Lieberman art director, 1945

Erwin Blumenfeld, Alexander Lieberman art director, 1950

Vogue magazine, April 1950

Photographer: Irving PennArt Director: Alexander Lieberman

Tone and plane are set in sleek opposition — a horizontal black brim above a vertical white scarf, sleeves precisely diagonal to both. Behind a veil the eyes of the model Jean Patchett - The Telegraph.

Irving Penn, Jean Pachett 1950

Tone and plane are set in sleek opposition — a horizontal black brim above a vertical white scarf, sleeves precisely diagonal to both. Behind a veil the eyes of the model Jean Patchett - The Telegraph.

Irving Penn, Jean Pachett 1950

Irving Penn, Jean Pachett 1950

Irving Penn, Jean Pachett 1950

Irving Penn, Jean Pachett 1950

Irving Penn at work on a still life

Irving Penn’s fashion photographs are like still lifes and his still lifes are like fashion photographs.

Irving Penn, After Dinner Games, 1947

Irving Penn, After Dinner Games, 1947Irving Penn, Frozen foods, 1970

Irving Penn, Frozen foods, 1970 Irving Penn, Edifice, 1980

Irving Penn, Edifice, 1980

“For some years I had been accumulating scraps of material that obsessed me: bits of glass, metal and bone; a human cranium, old sewing machines, a variety of dusts.”- Irving Penn

Irving Penn, Ospedale, 1981 Irving Penn, Edifice, 1980

Irving Penn, Still Life with Shoe, 1980

Irving Penn, Collapse, 1980

Irving Penn, Clinique ad, 1980s

Penn employed a spare and elegant approach to the Clinique brand from its inception.

He would photograph single products or arrange them in simple group compositions, monumentalizing the simple product containers by reducing background elements and emphasizing recognition of the brand's logo.

- Irving Penn archives

Irving Penn, Clinique ad, 1980s Irving Penn, Clinique ad, 1980s

PETER KEETMAN

Peter Keetman was a German industrial photographer. His abstract approach was part of a German movement called Subjective Photography.

In 1953 he spent a week photographing the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, and produced a promotional book.

The 1950s style was related to the 1930s style of ‘New Photography’

Albert Renger-Patszch, ad 1930s

Peter Keetman used one of the new Hasselblad cameras which gave sharp focus and rich tones.

Peter Keetman, Schaubenpumpe, 1960

Escher Wyss engineering, Switzerland, 1950

The new industrial photography was part of a revolution in 1950s graphc design, called International Style.

Like the photographs themselves, it was clear and functional and made with technical precision.

Escher Wyss engineering, Switzerland, 1950

Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works, 1948

Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works, 1948

Cazanueve engineering, Switzerland

Building with steel, Bell Engineering, Switzerland

Cazanueve engineering, Switzerland

Wolfgang Sievers Gears for Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt

WOLFGANG SIEVERS

Wolfgang Sievers was a commercial photographer for almost 50 years. He specialized in industrial and architectural photography.

Sievers almost never exhibited his work as art, although he is now regarded as one of Australia’s great photographic artists.

Australian postage stamp 1990

Wolfgang Sievers Gears for Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt,

Wolfgang Sievers at work c1970

Wolfgang Sievers Gears for Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt,

“This illustration is to our mind an example of an outstandingly successful treatment.

The glimpse of sky between the reflecting boiler shells and the pictorial effect of the close lying rails of the gangways add up to a photographic gem which should win admiration even from the aesthete and the devotee of the abstract.”

Photography in Industry, Munich 1967

Wolfgang Sievers Sulphuric Acid plant,Tasmania, 1959

Wolfgang Sievers Gears for Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt, Melbourne 1967

Nordberg Crusher ‘before’

Wolfgang Sievers, Vickers Ruwolt, Nordberg Crusher, 1969

Wolfgang Sievers Gears for Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt, Melbourne 1967

Wolfgang Sievers, Vickers Ruwolt, Nordberg Crusher, 1969

Wolfgang Sievers, Escalator site at Parliament Station, 1977