The Best Fashion Photographers of All Time
From Helmut Newton to Arthur Elgort, brush up on your history with a roundup of some of the most talented fashion photographers who helped shape the industry into what it is today.
The landscape of the fashion world has shifted irrevocably in the past hundred years. While designers are undeniably responsible for the innovation that has pushed the industry from mere commercial motivation to genuine artistry, the visionaries behind the camera that documented runway shows, brand campaigns, and editorial shoots in burgeoning fashion magazines have helped also helped mold the industry into what it is today.
Below, join L'OFFICIEL in appreciating the most influential fashion photographers of all time.
Helmut Newton
Australian fashion photographer Helmut Newton is among the most lauded in the scene. The photographer, who first picked up a camera at the age of 12, rose to recognition after his black-and-white photos for British Vogue were well-received by the fashion and media industries. Newton's unique photographic style drew from film noir, expressionism, and surrealism, and despite its reception as controversial and voyeuristic, changed the landscape of fashion photography with his incredibly stylized, striking photos.
Gilles Bensimon
Gilles Bensimon, born and raised in Paris, is most well-known for his role in shaping the future of ELLE and establishing a United States presence for the publication, incorporating a new wave of chic French fashion influence into the American fashion scene. Since the '60s, when the first publication began operating in the United States, Bensimon continued shaping the industry in the United States, working as a fashion photographer as well as the International Creative Director for ELLE, and is also known for his portraiture—with a portfolio including the likes of Madonna, Uma Thurman, Beyoncé, and Gisele Bündchen.
Herb Ritts
The ingenious fashion photographer Herb Ritts is best known for his distinct black-and-white style of portraiture. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ritts took an early interest in art history, rather than fashion or photography, which he studied in college.
"I’m glad I didn’t go to school for photography. Other photographers I know, Helmut Newton and Bruce Weber didn’t either. Even Steven Meisel didn’t, really—he went to fashion school. For me, the most important thing I learned was just honing my eye... I was tutoring myself, I suppose. Many people who excel are self-taught," Ritts said in a 1999 interview.
Herb Ritts got his start as one of the leading fashion photographers of the '80s and '90s after taking a few one-off photos of Richard Gere, who submitted them to his publicist, who passed them along to American Vogue, Esquire, and Mademoiselle, where they were printed in large feature spreads. Ritts went on to shoot cultural icons like Brooke Shields, Olivia Newton-Johnson, and Tina Turner and is often credited with ushering in the supermodel era of the '90s after shooting the famous photo, later titled "Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989" for Rolling Stone.
Arthur Elgort
Arthur Elgort began his career in the fashion world in '70s New York. Often credited with the birth of the snapshot style of fashion photography, Elgort focused his artistic eye on capturing movement, which resulted in countless series of dynamic photos that saw fashion as it existed in real-time, a skill honed through both an intense collegiate study of painting, as well as the process of training an eye for movement and natural light.
Throughout his career, Arthur Elgort has shot editorial content for numerous fashion publications as well as campaigns for luxury fashion brands like Chanel, Valentino, and Yves Saint Laurent.
Sarah Moon
Model-turned-photographer Sarah Moon first emerged as a groundbreaking female photographer in the '70s after capturing the essence of the Swinging Sixties through street-style looks in London. The French photographer made history after becoming the first woman to shoot the Pirelli Calendar in 1972, and subsequently worked with prominent fashion publications as well as luxury fashion houses like Chanel, Dior, and Commes des Garçons.
Moon is also famous for the blurred, dreamy effect that many of her photos take on, a characteristic that set her apart from many of the stark, staunchly defined silhouettes of fashion photography during the era and pushed the boundaries of fashion photography as an art form.
Steven Meisel
After graduating from Parsons, native New Yorker Steven Meisel began his foray into the arts with an illustration job for acclaimed designer Halston but branched out into fashion photography after beginning to photograph models in his spare time. Meisel's first true photography job was a series of headshot commissions from Elite Models, which were subsequently spread around the industry, resulting in Meisel being recruited as a photographer for luxury houses like Versace, Valentino, Louis Vuitton, and Calvin Klein.
Over many years of experience, Meisel developed a unique aesthetic sense and has made conscious attempts to shift standards in the fashion industry, including his famous 2008 Vogue Italia cover which featured an entire cast of Black models in response to pervasive racism rooted within the scene. Meisel has also collaborated with Madonna on a number of projects and has served as Prada's sole campaign photographer since 2004.
Annie Leibovitz
Known for her unique mode of portraiture, fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz was immersed in the arts from an early age, growing up around music, dance, and painting, thanks to the influence of her creatively-inclined mother. Although she has worked as a photographer in a variety of settings, Leibovitz's celebrity portraits are among her most famous pieces, capturing figures ranging from Yoko Ono to Miley Cyrus.
