Fashion, which is almost exclusively professional, is ostensibly about selling clothes and accessories. It attracts some of the best talents in photography and has a great influence on photography in general. The principal reason for this is that, in order to succeed, fashion photography must not only be in tune with general movements in style, it must anticipate them.
By its nature, fashion photography is concerned with the elusive subject of style, and this means that a perfectly accurate sense of style is essential to the photography itself, both in the content of the shot and the technique. If the photographic treatment is perceived to be boring or out of date, then it fails. While the content, which includes the choice of clothes, accessories, setting and model, is often planned in advance by the client (usually a magazine) the technique relies more heavily on the individual photographer's imagination. To remain fashionable, fashion photography technique can never stand still, and there is constant experiment and change with time. Styles vary from precision lighting in a studio to extreme naturalism through a snapshot technique on location.
