Today’s society has swapped the salon painters of bygone times for the fashion photographer. They are our contemporary equivalent to the Goyas, Velázquezs and Titians that once roamed the courts of high society. Just as their historical counterparts, the fashion photographer has been responsible for documenting style and taste as well as capturing Zeitgeist. Through the creation of  iconic imagery, these pioneers have mapped out an aesthetic language we have become accustomed to speak and in the process have added glamour to our everday lives, transforming taste and style as we flick through the pages of Vogue.

Cecil Beaton (UK)

We can thank Cecil Beaton for one of fashion’s most enduring and iconic images, the paired-down close-up of a young, fresh-faced Twiggy.  Beaton worked for Vogue and Vanity Fair for many years, as well as being the preferred photographer of the Hollywood elite such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Despite his leanings towards men, he was rumoured to have had a short liaison with Swedish starlet Greta Garbo. Photographing everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Marlene Dietrich, his work combines a quiet statuesque elegance with pronounced black and white contrasts, that would later influence other renowned photographers such as David Bailey.

David Bailey (UK)

One of the few photographers whose celebrity is on par to that of his subjects.  Bailey rose to fame as a contracted photographer at Vogue in1960, riding the crest of ‘Swinging London’s’ wave in the sixties, Bailey gave us some of the most iconic images of that time. Capturing everyone from Jean Shrimpton, the Kray twins, The Rolling Stones and Catherine Deneuve, to name but a few.  The main character in Michaelangelo Antonini’s cult classic film Blow Up, is largely based on Bailey and his notorious rock n’ roll lifestyle. He is not only considered to be an acclaimed photographer and 60′s anti-hero, but a celebrity in his own right. A pioneer who carved out the path for today’s edgier photographers.

Helmut Newton (Germany)

The trademark images of Berlin-born Newton, fuse unabashed sexuality with female domination.  His  images ooze volatile raw sexual power that  both confront and seduce the viewer. In the iconic images of Charlotte Rampling draped in fur, Newton pays homage to Leopold von Sacher Masoch’s turn of the century novel Venus in Furs, capturing the recognisable sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts that permeate much of his work. His powerful legacy of strong female nudes and erotically charged images survive his tragic death in a 2004 car crash.

Ellen von Unwerth (Germany)

The former model, and sadly only woman on this list, made her name within the fashion industry behind the camera rather than in front of it. Perhaps through her own experience in front of the camera, Unwerth’s images manage to extract a very soft erotic femininity, where the subjects demurely flirt in coquettish fashion with the viewer. Her career catapulted following a 1989 ‘Guess Jeans’ ad campaign with fellow German, Claudia Schiffer. Since then she has been an established name within the industry, and like her contemporary Herb Ritts, has branched out into music video, applying her identifiable style and aesthetic to the moving image.

Guy Bourdin (France)

Hailed by many as one of the greatest fashion photographers of all time (and along with Unwerth, Bourdin is one of my favourites of the top ten), the once protégé of Man Ray combines erotically charged mise en scenes with unnerving surrealistic undertones. Bourdin’s images lend their subjects a sense of high fashion aesthetics with a feeling of the Unheimlich. Like Newton, his pictures confront the viewer with a sense of sexual provocation. Yet unlike the former, Bourdin’s provocation is subtler. This is perhaps due to the painterly use of composition, colour and lighting, where the influences of Man Ray, Edward Weston, Magritte and Buñuel can be seen.

Peter Lindbergh (Germany)

If there is one photographer who can be credited for creating one of the most enduring fashion images of the 90’s, one need look no further than to Peter Lindbergh. This simple, paired-down black and white shot of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford and Stephanie Seymour huddled together, can be seen in effect as the catapult with which the phenomenon of the supermodel was launched into stratospheric heights. No longer is the model an anonymous clotheshorse, hell they aren’t even wearing any clothes!  Instead, in this one image Lindbergh manages to capture the hypnotic hold within fashion these women had, with the power of their celebrity alone.

Rankin (UK)

When one thinks hip, contemporary, edgy and British, then the photography of Dazed and Confused co-founder Rankin can be seen as encapsulating all those qualities.  His subjects are the créme de la créme of British pop and high culture, including  The Spice Girls, Kate Moss, Damien Hirst, Queen Elizabeth II and Tony Blair. His style has a very  flat and graphic quality, where his subjects seem at times to compete against this element for visual attention. His linear patterns and garish bright colours are juxtaposed against the subject to the point of distraction.  This in turn creates an edgy yet commercial character to his work, much like that of Warhol’s celebrity screen prints.

Mert and Marcus (UK)

Paving their careers in the pages of Dazed and Confused, the work of UK-based duo Mert and Marcus, now permeates and monopolises the pages of all major contemporary high end fashion magazines and ad campaigns. Heavily influenced by Guy Bourdin, their style incorporates theatrical lighting and colour in combination with the use of digital wizardry, affording their subjects an unnerving otherworldly quality. Favoured image-makers to the present-day fashion and celebrity elite, from Madonna to David Beckham, Mert and Marcus currently hold the title as the leaders of contemporary fashion photography.

Nick Knight (UK)

Back in 1995, The Face magazine awarded Nick Knight the weighty title of ‘Most Influential Fashion Photographer in the World’.  Since his first commission in 1986 to shoot for renowned cutting edge Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, he has earned the unending praise from his industry peers, as well having his photographs widely exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Knight could easily be lauded as today’s most celebrated fashion photographer. His prolific collaborations include work for such fashion A-list clients such as Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, and Jil Sander. Additionally shooting album covers for Elvis Costello, Björk, David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Gwen Stefani and Massive Attack.

Paolo Roversi (Italy)

In contrast to the fashion photographers listed, Italian born Roversi, began his photographic career in the more sober field of photojournalism. As a photographer for the Associated Press, his first major commission was documenting the funeral of Ezra Pound. Through composition and tonality, his images are infused with an essence of the antique, resembling the frozen elegance and stillness of 19th century portraiture.  Whether it be the piercing stare of his portrait of Tilda Swinton or an anonymous model in an editorial shoot, Roversi imparts a quiet intensity to his subjects, allowing them to be at once ethereal and penetrating.