Karl Lagerfeld

Born 1933; Lagerfeld was the son of a wealthy German businessman. The wealth his farther had allowed him to study in Paris at the age of just 14 and become an artist as well as designer. Since his 30's he has been taking part in prestigious competitions and worked for many top designer brands like Chloe and Vogue. He also used his own fashion and style to produce his own label which he eventually sold but kept all design control of.

This image is very classical however suggestive because of the underlying truth of the models personality. The holy beads and the nun association to the unsexualised purity that they believe in would have made this image very innocent and a very simple portrait. However Lagerfeld has given us as the viewer a little more information about the about the scene. It opens our eyes to how some women act and portray themselves in public compared to other situations. This image suggests that all women, no matter who they are, don't always act they way that they are thinking. It could also suggest that the model wishes for one thing and can't always stay true to what she believes.

The lighting for this image is very simple. Instead of using lighting that is often used for fashion Lagerfeld has used straight on flash from above the camera with a diffusing adaptor to even out the light over the whole image. It also looks like he has used two other lights with soft boxes for the background on each side; which suggests why there is no vignetting which is often created by straight on single flash.

 The model in this image is Abbey Lee, one of the most sort after models of the fashion industry. With recent work being completed for the likes of Hugo Boss and Gucci. To me this image feels like Lagerfeld is trying to make Lee look fragile and delicate. A lot like a china doll. Her bleach blond hair is decorated with an array of flowers and translucent materials. Gold has been used as the main jewellery material probably to match the hair and similar pale yellow tone of her skin. The reds and purples used for the lipstick also matches other areas of the image including the cloth she is wrapping herself in and dark tones of the eyeshadow used. 

I think that Lagerfeld has used two lights to create this image. It looks like a snoot was used on the light for the background due to the gradual fading in tone outwards from the centre of the dense area. I also think that he has used a form of flash ring that has created two clear lines down the face and their reflection is visible in the models eyes.

Lagerfeld does not state what cameras he uses to take his photos however the quality of both these images would suggest that a DSLR was used. This would explain the easy use of a ring flash.