Meisel became one of the most important fashion photographers of his time, with a
vast range of diversity and creative direction. He quickly become one of the most
dominative photographers in the fashion editorial scene.
His photographic style is heavily influenced by photographers: Richard Avedon,
Irving Penn and jerry Schatzberg.
In his work Meisels showed more than just the clothing or product being advertised,
He would often incorporate political and social topics which other photographers had
been afraid to touch in those days as they had been considered taboo, this is what
set him apart from others and helped him rise to the top. (this can be seen in his
series “state of emergency”)
Meisels wanted the viewer to think when looking at his pictures.
Meisel Often played with Genders where he would pose a male model in a female
role, this can be seen in his series “ Asexual Revolution)
In Meisels work, there is often stories being told but the main subject of the image
(the clothing) never gets lost, Meisel shoots in Black and white and colour
(seemingly prefers black and white).
Meisels black and white is very different to many other photographer’s black and
white in which there is very strong contrasts in the black and the white but there is
also a lot of greys in the image which soften the image and compliment the black
and white very nicely.
The Harsh black and whites would often be seen on clothed where the soft greys
would have been on skin tones.
Steven Meisel is part of the BoF 500 (2020). Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/steven-meisel (Accessed: 22 January 2020).