Friday05 Oct 11:21 AM
Terry Richardson: Advertising Is Witchcraft
The question of whether or not witchcraft is sexy, or fashionable, or alluring, is not at issue. (There's probably not even a question, really.) But the brilliance behind Terry Richardson's editorial shoot in French Vogue (September, #880) is that Richardson makes obvious that all of advertising is witchcraft; basically "revealing" the covert, occulted, nature of a multi-billion dollar witchcraft industry.
Fashion is strong voodoo. The photograph is a lie, a freeze dried (and meticulously constructed) moment that insinuates a story through its time-out-of-joint stillness. Laser focused to conjure human desires, the spell is reconstructed in the mind of the beholder, which latches onto whatever aspect of the image that is easiest to grab, or acquire, or fixate upon. Often that's several things, including an image of a woman, and her clothes by association... But who knows, maybe this spread will conjure a new hipster goat farming trend.
Terry Richardson details: Link, Wikipedia.
(via Technoccult, Jezebel)
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Thu 29 Nov 2007 at 07:33AM
enki
nice idea :). but honestly, i see this campaign as merely exploitatively clever and not brilliant or subversive. the main purpose of this shoot is still advertising, and i think richardson merely cheekily exploits the concept of witchcraft.
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