The exhibition Out of Fashion brings together the work of Nick Knight and Cindy Palmano, two of the most innovative British fashion photographers to have emerged during the eighties. Both have thrived in the atmosphere of experiment that has invigorated British fashion since the late 70s; benefitting initially from the new opportunities afforded by magazines such as The Face and I-D, their work is now gaining wider, more international recognition. While juxtaposing their styles and approaches, the exhibition shows both photographers making full use of the gallery context to explore the possibilities of fashion imagery beyond the constraints of the printed page. 

In focusing on the recent work of these two photographers Out of Fashion also highlights and reflects on certain themes and ideas that have influenced the nature of fashion imagery in the 80s. To an extent the resonance of these photographs is bound up with initiatives in fashion and graphic design that date back over ten years to the arrival of punk culture - the exhibition will suggest how the legacy of this era has developed and altered.

During the last decade fashion photography has adapted to function within an increasingly complex visual media where images, and the messages encoded with them, have become more and more sophisticated. Under these conditions photographers such as Nick Knight and Cindy Palmano have opted for a less descriptive, more conceptual approach, adding fresh, contemporary ideas to the values and traditions of photographing fashion. This is the context for Out of Fashion; the exhibition provides an opportunity to dwell on the fascination of fashion photography, and to reassess some of its most seductive, ambivalent stories.

Through his work for I-D, and more recently for the Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, Nick Knight has emerged as one of the most admired and respected fashion photographers of his generation. Out of Fashion will include a selection of his best work for Yohji Yamamoto, photographed between 1986 and 1988, together with portraits and independent fashion series published in I-D, The Face, Arena and Harpers and Queen.

Cindy Palmano's photographs are characterised by an audacious wit and a healthy disregard for the established codes of the fashion industry. For Out of Fashion, she will be producing a body of new work to add to some of the best of her recent magazine series. The work will be presented as a unified installation linked by experiments with photograms and X-Rays.

For further information on this and past exhibitions, visit our Archive and Study Room.