Corinne Day flourished in the 90’s, her photographs brought to live the ‘look’ that was going around called ‘Heroin Chic’.

Heroin chic was a look popularized in mid-1990s fashion and characterized by pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes and angular bone structure. The look, characterised by emaciated features and androgyny, was a reaction against the “healthy” and vibrant look of models such as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. A 1996 article in the Los Angeles Times stated that the fashion industry had “a nihilistic vision of beauty” that was reflective of drug addiction and the U.S. News and World Report called the movement a “cynical trend”.

Corinne photographed people such as ‘Tara’ who is the inspiration for her book ‘Diary’, Abusing drugs over a two year period. Corinnes images are very explicit in some as they show drug prep and nudity. All of her images produced the same aesthetic of hard core party scene images.

The look ‘Heroin Chic’ was categorized for  people with pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes and angular bone structure, typically female models. Corinnes images replicated this look as she photographed ‘Tara’ throughout her sober live and her drug live.

The two images above from Days book ‘Diary’, are two of my favorite. This is because they are the two photographs that have shown ‘Tara’ is her happiest state and her worst state. These images also show clearly the ‘heroin Chic Look’ as ‘Tara’ appears skinny, defined bone structure and also has dark/red circles under her eyes.

I have become fascinated by Corinne Day and her photography book ‘Corinne Day Diary’. I’m interested in the explicit nature of the book, exposing drugs, intoxication and nudity. These type of books interest me as I feel they push the boundaries of society and the photographers seem to not care what people think of them of their work, this therefore has interested me to study them . All of days pictures represent a feel of community to me, she is taking us through Tara’s community of friends.

Corinne Day  is a British photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s has been immense. As a self taught photographer, Day brought a more hard edged documentary look to fashion image making, in which she often included biographical elements. Day is known for forming long and close relationships with many of her sitters (most famously Kate Moss), which have resulted in candid and intimate portraits. The most notable of these being the photographs of Moss in the 3rd Summer of Love editorial for the FACE magazine in 1990. Days approach as illustrated within the lifestyle and fashion magazines of the 1990s, came to be known as grunge and grew into an international style.

“Good friends make you face the truth about yourself and you do the same for them, as painful, or as pleasurable, the truth may be”

This is one of my favorite quotes from Day, as i completely agree with this. Your true friends and the community you surround yourself with, do have this affect on you as they can make you face things you wouldn’t normally, they encourage you to do this you may not also. You do the same for them as you know eachother the best so can influence them and yourself to do things.