Fashion photographers are tastemakers and workhorses, artists and salesmen. Their imagery reflects the culture they work in, but there is no denying their influence in shaping culture as well.
When the first illustrated fashion magazines emerged in the 1890s, the ideals of fashion rested squarely with an aristocracy of style. In a large sense, the beginning of fashion photography and its profound cultural impact can be traced back to the 1920s, when a pioneering fashion photographer, Baron Adolphe de Meyer, began using society beauties and famous actresses as models, as in his 1920 photo of Helen Lee Worthing (Right). His images were painterly depictions of women as immobile and immortal icons.
De Meyer was brought from Europe to wo
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