Moonrise

In the predominantly heterosexual male world of fashion photography, Sarah Moon's thirty-five year career stands as a monument. Creating some of fashion's most beautiful imagery, Moon has also managed to dodge commercial currents along the way. Model turned photographer, her work, radically different from her male contemporaries Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and even her female counterpart Deborah Turbeville, is often endowed with a painterly quality which has owed her the title of 'impressionist photographer'. Invited to photograph the 1972 edition of the Pirelli Calendar in an attempt to soothe severe objections to it from feminist movements, Moon became the first woman photographer to take part in the project. Using this opportunity to push boundaries, she pioneered and became the first photographer to show fully exposed breasts. Throughout her career Moon has graced the pages of Biba and Vogue with ultra feminine photographs of nostalgic reverie, and has created some of the most iconic images for Cacharel and Comme des Garçons.

To coincide with the publication of a five-part monograph of her work, Sarah Moon: 1 2 3 4 5, two exhibitions of Moon's work run concurrently at the Royal College of Art and at the Michael Hoppen Gallery this autumn. The RCA exhibition includes over 150 photographs spanning Moon's entire career and two new film installations whilst the Michael Hoppen Gallery will include previously unseen photographs alongside her well-known work.

Caroline Legrand

The Sarah Moon exhibition runs concurrently at the Royal College of Art and the Michael Hoppen Gallery until the 15th November.

Sarah Moon: 1 2 3 4 5 is published by Thames & Hudson