Corinne Day (1965) is a British photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990’s 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 models (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 1990’s, came to be known as grunge and grew into an international style.
In 1993 Day photographed Kate Moss in her own flat for British Vogue. In the context of a fashion magazine the images appear to have a documentary feel about them and when published caused a certain frisson of discomfort.
For the following seven years Day spent much of her personal time taking photographs for her first book, Diary (Kruse Verlag, 2000), an intensely personal visual record of her life and friends. It is bleak but also a tender, poetic and honest chronicle of young lives. Day also continues to take photographs for fashion magazines.
Her style of photography links really well to my project as Day brought a documentary look to fashion image making, in which she often included biographical elements. Which is the same style I’m trying to create for my shoots. Also for my shoots I will represent the close relationships I have with the models I photograph as they are a part of my environment, like Day does.
I love the photograph below as it is completely bizarre, it looks as if they have ended up in the woods perhaps after a night out and woke up early morning. I like the soft black and white effect on the photograph as it makes it look like an old faded image.
This photograph works well as the photographer has had to work hard to capture the perfect lighting, as normally the person would be a silhouette in the sunset whereas he is seen clearly. The sunlight on the his skin, gives it a soft feeling.
Day uses the natural and artificial lighting to her benefit, by helping the photograph with its structure. This is a perfect example of her combining the styles of documentary and fashion photography together. As she is capturing the literal scenario she is in, however your eyes are immediately drawn to the watch the guy is wearing which is a fashion item, due to it being the second purest white in the photograph.
