Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography

'Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography’ is the second in a series of exhibitions being held at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum leading up to the opening of the V&A at Dundee. 

The exhibition features work by giants of twentieth century photography including Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and David Bailey, alongside contemporary images by Corinne Day, Rankin, Tim Walker and Steven Meisel.

The V&A is home to the UK’s National Collection of the Art of Photography.  'Selling Dreams’ is drawn from this collection and is the first V&A touring exhibition to explore the work of international fashion photographers from the earliest years of the twentieth century to the present day. It will include approximately 60 photographs.

The exhibition title is inspired by a quote from photographer Irving Penn.  In 1984, he commented on his role at Vogue as ‘selling dreams not clothes’. This simple statement highlights the complexity of the fashion photographer’s role, which goes far beyond the simple recording of fabrics and surface detail.  

Eight sections will chart key themes in fashion photography over the last 100 years. The first sections reflect how fashion photography flourished with the rise of illustrated magazines and include bold experimental works inspired by Surrealism and the European avant-garde.