Applied and Implied Interpretations of Fashion Photography in Colonial and Post-Colonial Nigeria

Abstract

Fashion Photography is an aspect of photography that focuses on style of clothing, personal appearance including hair, body decoration and accessories. It also involves the use of photography to document and promote fashion. Recently, artist photographers found fashion photography as a useful means of artistic expression. Before the invention of photography, graphic artists in Europe had promoted fashion through visual illustration. The practice was common for pioneering fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Various ethnic groups in Nigeria have particular styles of fashion. The Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa Fulani, Ibibio, Edo, Idoma and other groups can be identified merely by their styles of dressing. The paper considers the applied and implied interpretations of fashion photography in Nigeria between 1900 and 1970. It analyses how colonialism altered fashion styles and it concludes by enumerating the implication of photography on the development of fashion in Nigeria.