Glossy Is As Glossy Does

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Petronio Associates reel for models.com

This week Wayne at MDX posted a good interview with Ezra Petronio, creative director and co-founder – with his wife Suzanne Koller – of Petronio Associates and Self Service magazine. Here's the introduction:

The idea of fashion today is the idea of the still image as seen in glossy magazine pages and big city billboards and posters. The fashion photographers of our moment, in trying to continue the tradition of the modern masters of the trade (Penn, Avedon and Newton ) have been sustaining this art of creating a decisive fashion moment, around the movement of a model in a photo-shoot, where ideas of hair, make-up, styling, lighting have all aligned to create the single frame ideal of fashion. But that was the 20th century. As it becomes clear that the 21st century is digitally driven, how will an entire culture of editors, photographers and advertisers adapt to an audience that grew up with the amplified imagery of music videos and video-games who now view all media through a computer screen?

Hilary Rhoda and Irina Lazareanu photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Self Service issue n°24. Styling by Suzanne Koller.

Petronio:

While there are certain restrictions and adaptations that need to be made with digital design, they are not all that different than the restrictions that exist within traditional formats. Each type media provides an opportunity. It’s important to work with the media and not against it. Each format is best at displaying certain types of content and should be used as such – an iPad is not a TV, a web page is not a book or magazine. Something beautiful can be created for any media without compromise.
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The tactile quality of objects will become more and more objects of luxury, possibly enhancing their value and quality of the content we put on them. As things become more internet-oriented a printed edition of Self Service magazine will become something more collectible and precious, as people collect objects and value them.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Frida Gustavsson answers the Proustian questionnaire for the Self Service blog