frfashion1-8, Exercise 3: A fashion photograph as a source

Model answer (check the details), using Richard Avedon's picture of Dovima with elephants (Paris, 1955):

What it shows: a model in a long Dior evening dress standing between two elephants at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, in a staged composition. It shows the look of the dress, the glamour of the period and the way fashion was sold as a spectacle.

What it leaves out: the making of the dress (the atelier workers), the cost, the real clients, the models' working conditions, the conditions of the animals, and everyone who was not in the picture. It is a posed image for a magazine, not a record of daily dress.

What else to want to see: the same dress in the house's archive or a museum, the magazine page with its text and advertising, the photographer's contact sheets, accounts of the shoot by those who were there, and sales or press reports about the collection.

Conclusion: the picture is a good source for how the house wanted to be seen and how the magazine presented fashion in the 1950s, and a poor source for how people actually dressed.

Care: details about famous pictures (the date, the venue, the dress and the story of the shoot) are often retold in a polished form. Check them.