2 col silver4

Sarah Silver, Tush (Germany) magazine, February 2007.

1 cut sent e-m 8-6

typesetting copy

FOR 8-17

SVA WILL PRESENT “CLICK CHIC” SEPT 6 w/1 cut

avv/lsb set 8/8 #708300

NEW YORK CITY — On view September 6–October 6, the Visual Arts Museum, School of Visual Arts (SVA), will present “Click Chic: The Fine Art of Fashion Photography,” an exhibition documenting the vitality of fashion photography as a vehicle for creative expression, formal experimentation and social commentary. An opening reception will be Monday, September 10, from 6 to 8 pm.

On view will be nearly 50 images by six emerging and established photographers based in New York who have created distinctive bodies of work in fashion: Roderick Angle, Guy Aroch, Maki Kawakita, Ryan Michael Kelly, Chiun-Kai Shih and Sarah Silver. With cultural reference points as rich and varied as Art Nouveau, Buddhism, film noir, modern dance and Japanese Kabuki theater, they have made fashion photography their primary practice, applying a conceptual and formal rigor traditionally associated with fine art.

“Because they’re originally conceived and created to appear in magazines and advertisements, fashion photographs are often considered disposable,” said exhibition curator Dan Halm. “I’m hoping to change that by highlighting some exceptional images that hold their own as works of art.”

Fashion has been fertile ground for photography for decades, but the lines between fine art and commercial photography have blurred in recent years as more and more photographers have found an outlet in both realms. The 1990s saw a marked increase in advertising and editorial work by art-world mainstays like Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin. “Click Chic” considers a group of formally trained photographers who came of age since the 1990s and have worked mainly on commission for clients in the fashion industry.

The exhibition includes a selection of never-before-seen photographs created as personal work as well as images that have appeared in editorial features and advertising campaigns around the world. Both bodies of work engage the medium’s history and reflect contemporary developments in landscape, portraiture and still life photography.

All six photographers in the exhibition are alumni of SVA, where curricula integrates photographic genres, identities and ambitions, removing traditional barriers between “artistic” and “commercial” photography.

The Visual Arts Museum is at 209 East 23rd Street. For information, 212-592-2145.