18 Iconic Photoshoots In Fashion

When it comes to the history of fashion, it is fascinating not only for designers, iconic pieces, and stories in the magazines but also for its photography. Its most memorable part started in the 1920s with the first fashion photographers including Edward Steichen, Martin Munkacsi, Horst P.Horst, and Lee Miller, followed by post-war photographers Richard Avedon, Norman Parkinson, Cecil Beaton, Barry Lategan, Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, and more contemporary photographers, such as Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, and Annie Leibovitz. I am sure you have seen at least some of their photographs that graced the pages of notorious magazines. 

In this article, we invite you to learn a little bit about these great photographers and see 18 iconic photoshoots in fashion that they have made throughout the 20th century to the present day.

18 Iconic Photoshoots In Fashion

Edward Steichen – Gloria Swanson, 1928

Edward Steichen is considered one of the pioneers of fashion photography. Akey member of the Pictorialist movement and the Photo-Secession in the early 1900s, but also a Modernist. He served as chief photographer for Condé Nast from 1923 to 1938 while also working as a freelance photographer. He promoted fashion as art through photography, producing a series of photographs of ball gowns designed by Paul Poiret. And gained fame as a commercial photographer in the 1920s and ’30s by making numerous fashion and celebrity portraits. Vanity Fair published the image you see above in its February 1928 issue to coincide with the release of the film Sadie Thompson, starring Gloria Swanson who is the face of this portrait.

Martin Munkacsi – Nude with pararol, 1932

Martin Munkácsi was a Hungarian photographer. He began his career shooting sports, entertainers, politics, and street life in Germany and Hungary in the late 1920s and 1930s. He then transitioned to fashion photography when he took the first spontaneous fashion photograph of models running on the Long Island beach for Harper’s Bazaar. Those pictures revolutionized fashion photography with their uncommon informality and vitality. As a result, Munkacsi was hired by Harper’s Bazaar and left for New York, where he made his fame and fortune.

Horst P.Horst – Mainbocher Corset, 1939

Horst P. Horst was a German-American fashion photographer known as the pioneer of the genre now known as classic fashion photography. In the 1930s, he photographed for the French and British editions of Vogue. On the eve of World War II, Horst P. Horst shot one of his famous works “Mainbocher Corset” at Vogue Studios in Paris in 1939 and emigrated the next morning to the United States. He found work at American Vogue, where he would stay for the rest of his life.

Lee Miller – Self Portrait for Vogue, 1931

Lee Miller was also one of the 20th century’s most important fashion photographers (and one of the few acclaimed women photographers at that time), a Surrealist, best known for being a war correspondent for Vogue during World War II. She was also a model, and this is one of her fashion self-portraits shot for Vogue in 1931.

Irving Penn – Jean Patchett, 1950

Irving Penn was one of the most important fashion and editorial photographers of all time. He is best known as a still-life and portrait photographer. For over 60 years, his images graced the covers of the most prominent magazines. Including Vogue where he stayed from 1943 to 2009, creating 165 covers for the magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar. It’s hard to choose only one iconic photograph of his. But this one with Jean Patchett he made for the cover of Vogue in April 1950 is truly memorable. This was his first non-color Vogue cover published since May 1932.

Norman Parkinson – Wenda and Ostriches, 1951

Norman Parkinson was a celebrated British portrait and fashion photographer of the 20th century. He worked for a wide range of publications. Notably Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, and other international magazines, which brought him worldwide recognition. What’s interesting about him is that he stood out from his contemporaries by inventing the age of the supermodel and making photos look less formal, more fun, and casual with a note of humor. He enjoyed shooting outdoors, at a time when most of the photoshoots happened at Studios, and exotic locations like Russia, India, The Caribbean… The one you see above is a good example of Parkinson’s photography style. 

Richard Avedon – Dovima with elephants, 1955 and Carmen, 1957

Richard Avedon is regarded by many as the foremost portrait photographer of the 20th century for many reasons. He is mostly credited for erasing the gap between fashion and fine art, as well as art and politics. In addition, as he ran a commercial studio, Avedon became known for blurring the lines between fine art and commercial photography. He covered a broad range of photographic genres and subjects. And played with the mood, poses, hairstyles, clothing, and accessories, which he believed were all vital elements of an image.

In 1944, Avedon attended the New School of Social Research to study under Harper’s Bazaar’s art director, Alexey Brodovitch, and shortly after became a staff photographer at the magazine where he stayed for around 20 years. He then moved to Vogue in the 60s, where he remained for almost 25 years. “Dovima with Elephants” in which the model is wearing a Dior gown, produced for a Harper’s Bazaar editorial in 1955, and “Carmen” are one of his famous works. 

Cecil Beaton – Portrait of Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle

Cecil Beaton launched his career as one of society and fashion photographers in 1926 with a solo exhibition in London that won him an immediate contract with Vogue, where he worked for the next 30 years. His passion for high-society portraits led him to form connections with celebrities. Including Coco Chanel, Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and artists such as Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol. 

Barry Lategan  – Twiggy’s Close-up, 1966

Barry Lategan was a South African fashion photographer, perhaps less known but also important.  Just like other famous fashion photographers, he worked for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and other magazines. And has caught under his lens famous personalities including Princess Anne, Margaret Thatcher, Iman, and Calvin Klein. He is best known for discovering Twiggy, who was one of the most recognizable models back in the 1960s, modeling for designers like Mary Quant and André Courreges. This portrait is perhaps the most famous of her ‘headshots’ collection, and an iconic photo ever shot by Lategan. 

Guy Bourdin – Vogue Paris, 1969 & 1970

Guy Bourdin was a French fashion photographer best known for his highly experimental and provocative fashion photography. And predominantly worked in color. His career spanned more than 40 years during which he worked for the world’s leading fashion houses and magazines. Discovered by French Vogue at the beginning of the 1950s, he remained at the magazine until the end of the 1980s.

Helmut Newton – Le Smoking, 1975

Helmut Newton was a German-Australian fashion photographer known for his provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photography. After WW2, he opened up a photography studio and moved to Europe in the 1950s. In Paris, he began working for French Vogue. And later Playboy, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and other publications during the 1950s and 1960s. As his reputation grew, he began traveling frequently around the world on assignments. If we had to select one landmark moment in his career, it would be that he is the photographer behind this shot featuring Le Smoking by Yves Saint Laurent. 

Peter Lindbergh – Birth of the Supermodels, 1988

Moving towards more modern fashion photography, let’s first look at Peter Lindbergh’s work. Did you know that the German photographer is credited for launching the new supermodel era? Indeed, Peter Lindbergh is behind the lens of the January 1990 British Vogue cover. He shot then relatively unknown Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and the late Tatiana Patitz. Known as “the original supermodels”, who have been dominating the fashion industry since the late 80s, partly thanks to Lindbergh who put them on the map.

Patrick Demarchelier – Princess Diana, Vogue 1990

Patrick Demarchelier was a French fashion photographer who has done it all. From producing countless photoshoots for notorious magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, shooting campaigns for luxury brands. Including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent… to creating numerous portraits of supermodels and celebrities. Princess Diana, for instance, gained international recognition with this portrait shot by Demarchelier for Vogue in 1990.

Steven Meisel – Linda Evangelista, 1990

Steven Meisel is one of the remaining great fashion photographers, and his work is published in many top fashion magazines around the globe. He was discovered by Oscar Reyes, a booker for Elite Model Management, who was impressed with the photographs he was taking for the models to use in their portfolio for Seventeen Magazine casting, who subsequently hired Meisel. From that moment, his photography career skyrocketed. He shot campaigns for Prada, Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, among other brands, and is also known for creating album covers for Madonna’s albums “Like a Virgin”. As you can see in the picture above, to this day, Linda Evangelista is among the models he took the most pictures of.

Mario Testino – Kate Moss, Towel Series  – 2014

Another modern fashion photographer to know is Peruvian Mario Testino. His photographs have been published internationally in magazines such as Vogue, W Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He has contributed to the success of leading fashion and beauty houses, creating images for brands from Gucci, Burberry, Versace, and Michael Kors to CHANEL, Estée Lauder, and Dolce & Gabbana. Kate Moss has always been one of his biggest muses, who was the inspiration for Testino’s iconic “Towel Series”. I was at a shoot with Kate Moss and I saw her in her dressing room after a shower—she was in a robe and a towel on her head and I just decided to capture that moment and post it,” he said about this project.

Annie Leibovitz – Vogue May 2023

If we had to choose a recent iconic photoshoot, it would be this recent one shot by Annie Leibovitz, a famous American photographer known for her celebrity portraits – John Lennon for Rolling Stone, Bob Marley, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few. For its May 2023 issue, Vogue US paid tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, asking 10 designers to create looks inspired by the legendary late fashion designer. Pierpaolo Piccioli, John Galliano, Donatella Versace, Chitose Abe, Olivier Rousteing, Thom Browne, Christopher John Rogers, Jun Takahashi, Simone Rocha, and Gucci designers took part in the project.

The shooting took place at the Grand Palais in Paris – a site where Karl showed his Chanel collections many times, which happens to be under significant renovation. The looks were photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by the fashion editor Alex Harrington. 10 models showcased the designs: Shalom Harlow, Kendall Jenner, Liu Wen, Anok Yai, Adut Akech, Natalia Vodianova, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Gigi Hadid, and Devon Aoki.

We hope you liked our selection of iconic fashion photoshoots, both according to us and their acclaim in the fashion industry. Who is the fashion photographer you admire the most? Do you have a favorite photograph?