Corinne Day (1962-2010) was a revolutionary self-taught British Photographer who influenced the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s. Day provided a hard-edged, candid documentary style to fashion image making and often included biographical elements.
Day sought to reject the traditional formulaic style of fashion photography which were often characterised by the use of backdrops, exotic locations and numerous costumes changes. Her strikingly honest and intimate images featured both men and women in everyday situations. Through her photographs she brought to life feelings of humour, warmth and pain, creating fashion shoots in a documentary style. Her models assumed no poses, they wore little make-up, and their imperfections were highlighted for a sincere portrayal. Her radical approach, as illustrated within fashion magazines of the 1990s, came to be associated with a more edgy ‘grunge’ street style which grew into an international movement.
Her seminal approach to fashion photography revaluated the modern concept of beauty through her intimate celebration of reality and of unconventional beauty. Her images operate on a more realistic level; they do not appear detached or devoid of life: admirably the models are not just seen as commodities, another tool to sell products or objectified as clothing on a hanger.
-Amber Barnes
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.