The Powerful Femininity Of Fashion Photographer Charlotte Wales
By Something CuratedFollowing her graduation from Central Saint Martins back in 2008, Charlotte Wales began working for celebrated fashion photographer Daniel Jackson, taking on the role of his studio manager. Astutely leveraging her introduction into the fashion industry, Wales quickly established herself as a photographer in her own right, working on a number of independent jobs.
Her refined images explore a distinctive sense of femininity and youth, which have garnered the photographer editorial commissions from Vogue, The Gentlewoman, New York Times – T, Dazed, 032c, POP, W and M le Monde and an enviable list of commercial clients which includes Hermès, Chloé, Céline, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Area Studio.
In 2016, Wales collaborated with London-based print publication Buffalo zine, to create a series of images akin to those found in clothing catalogues from the 90s. A playful pastiche on the recognisable format, Wales’ images are humorous and evocative. More recently, under the editorship of Edward Enninful, Wales has worked with British Vogue on a number of projects, including a story with rising model Tess McMillan. Her photographs are currently being exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, as part of the Eckhaus Latta: Possessed show.
The photographer’s tongue-in-cheek and ethereal images make use of well-considered lighting and artful composition, which bring the design of the clothing to the foreground. Oscillating between still life photography and moving image, Wales has completed a number of film and video works in recent times, including her latest short film with Kendall Jenner for American Vogue. As with her still images, Wales’ idiosyncratic sensitivity to colour is ever apparent in her films.
Beyond the fashion industry, Wales’ work has filled the pages of True Photography Journal, for which the photographer shot hormone-fuelled public school educated teenagers at the notorious London under-18s party the Feathers Ball. With a series of editorial and commercial projects in the pipeline, traversing a breadth of channels, Wales’ work continues to excite and engage with a number of current matters, presenting dynamic and multifaceted representations of contemporary women.
Feature image via Charlotte Wales