Norman Parkinson. Always in Fashion

Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, a true pioneer in the world of fashion photography.

Norman Parkinson transformed the landscape of fashion photography, introducing a dynamic and spontaneous approach to traditional photography. While many of his colleagues shot in studios with controlled lighting and static settings, Parkinson favoured outdoor settings, capturing models in motion, often engaged in everyday activities or in evocative exotic settings. This approach paved the way for fashion as a dynamic and evolving art form, in tune with new cultural and social trends. A broad and complex journey in which he immortalised most of the century's stylistic evolutions: from the Britain of the 1930s to the austere fashions of the Second World War, from the Parisian New Look of the 1950s to the Swinging London of the 1960s, and on to the glamour and glitz of the 1970s and 1980s.

Norman Parkinson is remembered as a photographer who knew how to combine elegance and spontaneity, turning each of his photos into a visual narrative that transcended the mere representation of fashion: his work influenced generations of photographers and his images are still today a fundamental reference for understanding the evolution of fashion photography during the 20th century.