Professional Photographer: John French

JOHN FRENCH (1906–1966) PHOTOGRAPHER


                  John French has and always will be one of my favorite photographers. I love anything-old fashion and I love how all of his images are black and white and so iconic. He captured some of the world’s top models in the 50’s. I have a few of his pictures hanging in my room. His work is stunning. John French was one of London’s top fashion photographers of the 1950s and 1960s, an era when those who wore and photographed clothing for a living could become famous overnight. The models he worked with included the most famous of the time; many were debutantes who went on to become well-known society figures. French persuaded the art editors of the national press to use his flawlessly lit images of top models and his work appeared in virtually every newspaper and magazine. Working originally with the Daily Express he pioneered a new form of fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving where possible reflected natural light and low contrast. He also undertook portrait photography. French is known for his clear, stylish, uncluttered black and white photographs taken against clean backgrounds.  He preferred to work closely with his models, devoting much attention to their posing and his sets.  Hands were important in his images, and were always carefully posed; as well as the eyes of his models, often making them looks to one side to increase the size of the white area in the image. As you can see, John French knew how to work with contrast. He worked with some of the world’s top models and wanted to make an argument that these are the women of our time, and he sure did. As you can see below, he has all of his models looking away and very few of his photographs his models are looking directly in the lens. I think this sends off a perfect argument of how women were looked at in this time. In the 50’s they were the homemakers and the men were the ones who did the job. This makes the women look passive and not as confident. These women all have smirks on their faces with the message almost saying “I am beautiful and this is what beautiful should be.”