Photography has been used to record and document periods in time, which Wells (2001:19) acknowledges by stating that, “…photographs are records and documents which pin down the changing world of appearance”. Richard Avedon and Irving Penn made a significant contribution to fashion photography during the 1950s but this has seldom been explored in a scholarly way. By defining the characteristics of Avedon and Penn’s work, a possible understanding of their influence on contemporary fashion photographers, Matthew Rolston and Steven Meisel may be determined and so expand on the understanding of the contribution of Avedon and Penn to contemporary fashion photography. Avedon, Penn, Rolston and Meisel’s fashion photographs will be visually analysed to show the similarities and the relevance of 1950s fashion photography to contemporary fashion photography. Paul Martin Lester’s (2003) method of visual analysis will be used as the basis for this analysis. The reason for choosing Lester’s methods of visual analysis is that it can be applied to all fields of visual art and design. Contemporary fashion photography draws on many different stylistic devices and periods in history for its re-invention, so it is important to understand what constitutes the defining characteristics of a stylistic period in history to be able to revisit it in contemporary photography.

William Bell was an active photographer for more than a half century, successfully making the technical and commercial transitions from the daguerreotype process of the 1840s and 1850s to the collodion processes of the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, and finally to the dry plate processes that dominated the medium from the mid-1880s until the time of Bell's death in 1910. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a biography of Bell (1830-1910), to assess his contributions to photography, and to suggest something of the growth of professionalism in nineteenth century photography using Bell as "typical."

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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 M39 / Master of Science