Fashion Photography and Architecture brought together photographs by Giovanni Gastel, Richard Phibbs, Greg Lotus and Paul Bellaart, in which buildings, interiors and landscapes carry as much of the image as the clothes. The exhibition ran from July 26 to August 22, 2020. The ten works are currently available through The Selects Gallery, and each has its own page with finishes and framing.

How architecture shapes the fashion image

A fashion photograph is usually read as a picture of clothes. Place the same clothes inside a building and the reading changes. The architecture sets the scale of the figure, supplies a period and a mood, and gives the eye lines and surfaces to follow before it reaches the model.

That is the argument of this exhibition. In each of the ten photographs the setting is chosen with the same care as the styling, and the two are meant to be read together. Certain structures return from one photographer to the next. A ladder stands in Gastel's Ladder and again in Phibbs's Dream Within A Dream, and a gateway frames the figures in Lotus's Tai Chi and in Phibbs's Manor Born.

The photographers

Giovanni Gastel. Two of the Costume e Società pictures were made at the Olympic swimming pool of the Foro Italico in Rome, a complex built in the 1930s. In Costume e Società, Ladder, 2008 and Costume e Società, Swimming Pool 5, the building is the subject the fashion has to answer to. The first sets two models either side of a ladder against a mosaic of horses, and the second reclines a model on the marble steps. Venaria Reale was shot in Turin in 2015 for the cover of How to Spend It Italia, and places a model in a red floral cape in the long vaulted gallery of a former royal residence. Black Forest, published in Femme, Germany, in 1998, lays a model across a curved stone arch above an immense forest, where other pictures use a hall.

Richard Phibbs. Phibbs made these photographs for Harper's Bazaar UK. Regency Romance appeared in December 2017, with a model in a pale green feathered gown before an English country house, and Manor Born in December 2018, which reads as a reinterpretation of a medieval tale, with a model between two borzoi at stone gateposts topped with heraldic beasts. Dream Within A Dream ran in June 2018 and puts a model in a red gown on a ladder against a stone plinth beside a caryatid. See the full Richard Phibbs collection.

Greg Lotus. Both works were published in Vogue Italia. Rose in a Dress, from February 2009, has a neoclassical feel: a model in a long black gown and an oversized white flower hat stands beside a white fireplace. Tai Chi, from November 2015, shows two models who look like twins, mirroring one another in matching stances before a Chinese pavilion gate in a wooded park. See the full Greg Lotus collection.

Paul Bellaart. Untitled belongs to a series published in Glamour Netherlands in February 2015, with the model Doutzen Kroes, and sets a dance like pose in a wood panelled hall with stone columns. See the full Paul Bellaart collection.

The ten works

• Paul Bellaart, Untitled, Glamour Netherlands, 2015
• Giovanni Gastel, Black Forest, Femme Germany, 1998
• Giovanni Gastel, Venaria Reale, Turin, 2015
• Giovanni Gastel, Costume e Società, Ladder, 2008
• Giovanni Gastel, Costume e Società, Swimming Pool 5
• Greg Lotus, Tai Chi, Vogue Italia, November 2015
• Greg Lotus, Rose in a Dress, Vogue Italia, February 2009
• Richard Phibbs, Dream Within A Dream, Harper's Bazaar UK, June 2018
• Richard Phibbs, Regency Romance, Harper's Bazaar UK, December 2017
• Richard Phibbs, Manor Born, Harper's Bazaar UK, December 2018

Collecting and framing

Each work is offered in a choice of finishes, and the framing options are listed on each product page. The Fine Art Quality page explains how the prints are produced. Interior designers and art advisors can find trade information on the Trade page, and see how photography from the gallery sits in real rooms in In Situ. For sizes, larger formats or a framing question, write to contact@theselectsgallery.com.

Questions about the exhibition

How do fashion photography and architecture work together in a photograph?

The setting gives the figure a scale, a period and a mood, and the clothes give the setting a point of focus. In this exhibition the two are chosen together, so neither reads as a backdrop for the other.

Which photographers are in the exhibition?

Giovanni Gastel, Richard Phibbs, Greg Lotus and Paul Bellaart, with ten works in total.

Are the works from the exhibition still available?

Yes, all ten are currently available. Each product page lists the sizes, finishes and framing.

Can interior designers buy for client projects?

Yes. The Trade page explains the program, and the gallery team can advise on scale and placement.

Where can I see the photographs in a home?

The In Situ section shows works from the gallery in model residences and show houses.