Joke Robaard – publication (“Dutch only” version already available)
From lower right to upper left
About transformations and appropriations in fashion- and advertising photography
When you are reading a book, you sometimes gaze away from the page in order to let the words sink in and ultimately comprehend them. While I was reading The Fashion System by Roland Barthes, I automatically started looking through fashion magazines and tearing out texts and photographs that could illustrate what he had written. Most people don’t actually read the words in fashion magazines – you skim them briefly, yes, but the promotional tone of the language usually doesn’t invite you to read more closely. The text in a fashion commentary functions as a catalyst, as the polar opposite of the fashion image, as white against black. Text fills the spaces between the photographs and generates the flow through the magazine. Barthes, despite his fascination for fashion photography, chose to study the language that fashion produces. By examining the written garment meticulously, he shows how fashion operates, how the language of fashion is created as a lawmaking tool and what purposes it is used for.
……(full text in print)
? more information: download infosheet-pdf (Dutch only)
? Interested: Please send email to the research group or call the Research group office: Wilma Diepens – +31 76 5 250 370 (mon/tue/wed)
