Hybridity in Post-Fashion Photography: Juergen Teller’s Miu Miu Resort 2020 Advertisement Campaign

The development of fashion photography, just like its subject itself, was in the past and will be affected by trends in the future. The techniques and influences that emerged in the field since the late 1980s and 1990s have marked a paradigm shift from idealized to flexible conventions shaping the status quo of what constitutes a contemporary fashion (ad) photograph. The developments are reflected in modern fashion (ad) photographers’ works such as by Philip DiCorcia or Juergen Teller. The latter is considered a trending fashion photography pioneer. Although it is impossible to typify contemporary advertising photography’s expression, this paper illustrates one of its multi-approaches by investigating Juergen Teller’s (aesthetic) strategy in the advert campaign series Resort 2020 for Miu Miu in light of the concept of hybridity, which reflects the tendency of post-modernist photography. The notion of hybridity is characterized by dualism. The ad contains a multiplicity of hybrid...Show moreThe development of fashion photography, just like its subject itself, was in the past and will be affected by trends in the future. The techniques and influences that emerged in the field since the late 1980s and 1990s have marked a paradigm shift from idealized to flexible conventions shaping the status quo of what constitutes a contemporary fashion (ad) photograph. The developments are reflected in modern fashion (ad) photographers’ works such as by Philip DiCorcia or Juergen Teller. The latter is considered a trending fashion photography pioneer. Although it is impossible to typify contemporary advertising photography’s expression, this paper illustrates one of its multi-approaches by investigating Juergen Teller’s (aesthetic) strategy in the advert campaign series Resort 2020 for Miu Miu in light of the concept of hybridity, which reflects the tendency of post-modernist photography. The notion of hybridity is characterized by dualism. The ad contains a multiplicity of hybrid elements revealed by using the methods of interdisciplinary research approach, combining literature review from various disciplines and visual analysis: Miu Miu Resort reflects not only a hybrid fusion of the luxury (the Miu Miu collection) and the banal (the setting or the models’ posing) but also plays on the concept of the grotesque which is in itself hybrid and is exemplified in the photographic series mainly by pairing incongruent categories such as animal and handbag. The general ambiguity in Resort is reflected in ‘conflicting’ compositions intriguing viewers and stimulate their curiosity for luxury products’ display, proved by findings of other scholars’ research on grotesque imagery’s persuasiveness. Teller’s imagery lacks cohesiveness and is not classifiable in many respects, as underlined by his neither amateurish, documentary, or filmic photography style nor in terms of gaze and gender-specific representations of the models. The artist’s work is unlike traditional fashion ad photography, which provides an exaggerated and decorative aura. Teller maintains the Resort campaign’s focus on the Miu Miu commodities by presenting the ordinary as ordinary. The anti-spectacular approach in Juergen Teller’s photographs alludes to the aesthetic concept Wabi-Sabi incorporating intentionally cropped body-parts or sunlight overexposure, rendering albeit the impression of naturalness, but the awareness of an artificial construction remains.Show less

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Hybridity in Post-Fashion Photography: Juergen Teller’s Miu Miu Resort 2020 Advertisement Campaign