This series is made possible through generous support from the Kettering Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Moderated by Tim Gunn, chair of fashion design at Parsons, panelists include Pascal Dangin, CEO of Box Ltd; Vince Aletti, writer, critic, and contributor to Face of Fashion; and Steven Sebring, photographer and director.
The first of a two-part series on Photography in Context sponsored by the Aperture Foundation in collaboration with the Photography Department at Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, this panel brings together representatives from various facets of the fashion industry to discuss ways that fashion photography and art collide.
Bio
Vince Aletti
Vince Aletti is an American music journalist and photography critic.
Vince Aletti was the first person to write about disco (in a piece published in Rolling Stone in 1973), writing a weekly column about disco for the music trade magazine Record World (1974-1979) and reporting about early clubs like David Mancuso's Loft for the Village Voice in the late seventies and eighties.
In the 1979 and 1980, Aletti also worked as the A&R man for Ray Caviano's RFC Records. He was a senior editor at the Village Voice for nearly 20 years until leaving in early 2005.
These days, Vince Aletti reviews photography exhibitions for The New Yorker’s "Goings on About Town" section.
Pascal Dangin
Creator of Box Ltd, Pascal Dangin works with top photographers including Annie Leibovitz, Steven Klein, Steven Meisel, Mario Sorrenti, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Karl Lagerfeld, Craig McDean and David Sims, paving the way for the digital photography revolution.
Pascal continues to explore uncharted territories and define new boundaries in the world of printing and in the publishing of fashion photography. Work by Box appears regularly on the covers and pages of such publications as W, Vogue and Vanity Fair and in advertising campaigns for Gucci, Calvin Klein, Chloe, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and Yves St Laurent.
Tim Gunn
Timothy Gunn is Chair of the Department of Fashion Design at Parsons The New School for Design. Gunn has been a vital part of the Parsons community for more than 23 years. In August 2000, he was appointed chair of the fashion design program with the charge of retooling and invigorating the curriculum for the 21st century. Under Gunn's direction, the department has strengthened its position as the indisputable leader in fashion design education in America and as one of only a handful of leading programs in the world. The school will celebrate the centennial of the program, which was the first of its kind in the nation, this year.
Gunn credits the seminal changes in the department's curriculum with the meteoric success of the dynamic design duo of Jack McCollough '02 and Lazaro Hernandez '02 of Proenza Schouler, whose senior year thesis collection was bought off the school's runway by Barneys New York. This academic and fashion industry "first" was a mere bellwether for the graduating classes to follow and set in motion an industry clamoring for young, innovative design talent, including up-and-coming designers such as Ashleigh Verrier '04.
Prior to his appointment as chair of the fashion design program, Gunn spent most of his career at Parsons as Associate Dean of the school. In that capacity, he worked closely with the academic departments and helped develop programs and relationships abroad, including the international spectrum of Parsons affiliates in Paris, Korea, Japan and the Dominican Republic.
Gunn has lectured widely on fashion and lifestyle design and Parsons' influential role in putting America on the global design map. His interviews have appeared in publications as diverse as Time and Newsweek, Crain's New York Business, Martha Stewart Living, Elle Magazine and Women's Wear Daily, and his television interviews have appeared on CBS, NBC, and the Metro Channel.
Steven Sebring
Steven Sebring was born Aberdeen, South Dakota. He moved to New York in 1992, and has become known for his definitive style of photography in fashion, celebrity, and rock-n-roll portraiture. When he is not busy with exhibitions, book publishing, and other projects, he continues to shoot portraiture, beauty, and fashion for such high-profile lines such as Coach, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Nautica, and Victoria's Secret, as well as for magazines like Vanity Fair, GQ, W, and L'uomo Vogue.
I think they don't need any excuses for what they are doing today. The fashion today and tomorrow will forever be making up for the 80's. It not wrong to give people a goal to reach in beauty and fitness. Some images will never capture the true beauty in front of them no matter how much photoshop is done and some images will never hide the ugly truth no matter how much photoshop they use. Fashion and beauty is what it is , why talk about why , just create it.
Michael Gomez