“It feels like a really distinct move away from a sexualised body to something really playful and humorous,” says image director Holly Hay about the changing role of the female body in contemporary fashion photography.

Teaming up with old friend, fashion curator and archivist Shonagh Marshall, the pair put together a new exhibition exploring just that. Titled Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion, the group show presents editorial images from between 2010 and 2017 that all share an unusual approach to portraying the body.

Through this project Shonagh and Holly aim to challenge the idea of fashion photography being based around the garment. Instead they present images that celebrate extraordinary gestures and poses, taking them outside the context of a magazine and onto a gallery wall.

Thalia Chin: Can you talk us through the key influences behind deciding to curate this exhibition with Shonagh?
Holly Hay: Shonagh and I have been friends for a long time now and our worlds collide in some instances but we had never worked together before. She came to me with this observation about fashion photography over the last ten years or so and this approach to the body that felt really specific and I realised that this related to many of the images too. I felt like this was a really good time to start talking about it, this specific approach to the body is really part of the visual landscape that we see everyday, from a Zara campaign to people’s personal work, from work exhibited in art exhibitions to fashion editorials. It feels like a really distinct move away from a sexualised body to something really playful and humorous. What I always want to do is something really positive, to really celebrate work. So this felt like a really nice opportunity to bring together Shonagh’s world and mine into one show.

Thalia: Photos that lean towards a more playful approach to the body and contortion of shapes?
Holly: Yes, as I mentioned you see it seeping in so much more. What was really important to me and Shonagh was that we weren’t just picking out random pictures from people’s portfolio that might show the body in a funny pose, it wasn’t that at all. It is about these artists that have really dedicated processes to this, clothes or no clothes their approach to the body is the same. That was really important and did make us realise that there is a massive shift in how we are looking at the body – and I guess therefore what a fashionable body looks like now in contemporary fashion, that feels different, and therefore how you look at the garment. The pictures are supposed to sell fashion, and the photographers aren’t ignoring that, however they are presenting the garments in a different way, it’s worn in the wrong way or it’s not on the body at all. 

“That started a real conversation between Shonagh and me about whether or not designers are now designing for the photograph, imagining the garments in a fashion editorial, instead of by a person on the street. “

Thalia: Can you tell me about the selection process?
Holly: That was such an interesting process for us. I pulled together these folders of probably about 150 images. I didn’t present Shonagh with full stories, I picked out certain images from stories and I just put them into folders. It’s really weird in a job like mine because I know all these people so well so I think everyone should know who these people are but actually to Shonagh some of these names were very new. She really saw these photos without the layer that I have of really liking the person or being attached to the work personally. So she went through them and started to make edits. It has been amazing for me, I have never done anything in a physical space before so it’s been interesting watching Shonagh and seeing her process. Everything to her has to have a reason in the show.

Thalia: While you were working on this project were there any recurring themes that emerged?
Holly: There were some recurring things like models. So there is a model who was part of several of the photographers’s stories. She’s in the Charlotte Wales images and she’s also in the Brianna Capozzi image and she’s apparently just this incredibly free spirit. Charlotte talks about how she had to run across the desert after her, trying to capture her because she was on her own journey. These are the anecdotes that you never hear about when you’re flicking through the pages of a magazine. You might not ever think about who this person is or what the hell they are doing. Your intentions are different I guess when you’re flicking through a magazine. The other thing I noticed was, and I would love to know if they are the most photographed item in Fashion, the Balenciaga boots. That started a real conversation between Shonagh and me about whether or not designers are now designing for the photograph, imagining the garments in a fashion editorial, instead of by a person on the street. Those boots appear five times throughout the show, it’s hilarious!

Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion will run at 10 Thurloe Place, Kensington until 12th November 2017.