L'identità transgender della fotografia di moda negli anni Ottanta. I casi Newton e Scianna

Abstract

At the beginning of the Eighties, the discussion around the photography’s issues is influenced by an anti-ideological climate. Core of this discussione is the difference between the so-called “pure” photographers and the “artists” photographers, a difference which has become increasingly evident in the previous decade. We may define “pure” the photographers mostly interested in technical and linguistic aspects of photography, while the “artists” photographers are mostly interested towards the conceptual aspects of photography.
The overcoming of this rigorous opposition finds a solution inside fashion photography, a field ontologically suitable for hybridization process, thanks to two photographers who, in different ways, helped the medium in redefining its identity.
The first one, Helmut Newton, ironically turned voyeurism, a photographic pathology, into a style, mixing pictorial and conceptual aspects. The second one, Ferdinando Scianna, a very pioneer of the anti-ideological turn typical of the Eighties, questioned his photoreporter skills accepting assignements from the fictional world for excellence: the fashion communication.