Book Synopsis

Prioritizing self-identity over glossy fantasy, Nickerson's fashion photography embodies both her artistic and feminist vision

Photographer Jackie Nickerson (born 1960) has worked for some of the world's leading luxury brands and magazines, including Louis Vuitton, Yeezy, Hermès, Dior, Vogue and Vanity Fair, and yet her fashion photography maintains an anti-commercial stance, the conviction that dressing and dressing up are less about clothes and more about the selves they help us to discover. "I think of clothing as a kind of architecture and part of my job is to find the right environment for it," she says. Often these environments are outside, shaped by changing rhythms of light and a sense of narrative, sometimes theatrical, nearly always open-ended. Clad is the first book wholly dedicated to Nickerson's fashion photography. In 400 pages and nearly as many images, it captures her fascination for clothing, both as object and act, as well as her interest in texture and costume.