The fashion industry is brimming with talented moving parts, from fashion designers to photographers to models and more. Each part working closely with the other, so much so, that it’s not unusual for a person to change roles in the industry. However, sometimes, that is also when an outrage from competitors is born. Recently there has been an emergence of models, such as Bella Hadid and her sister Gigi Hadid stepping from in front of the camera to behind the lens.
Fresh off the line of role crossovers in the industry is model-turned-photographer, Kendall Jenner, who debuted as a fashion photographer last summer while shooting Kaia Gerber, the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, for LOVE magazine.
A few of Jenner’s images of Kaia Gerber for the cover of LOVE magazine.
Images courtesy of LOVE magazine.
Jenner has always been in the spotlight for almost all of her life, so she is no stranger to the camera. She has spent her life in front of a camera working on the family reality show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. In 2014, she made her high fashion debut on the runway for the Marc Jacobs Autumn/Winter 2014 line.
It has only been until recently that she took to making photography a her next career move, not because she fears an end to her shelf life as a model, but as she states in an interview with the U.K. publication, The Daily Telegraph, “I think it’s more about showing my eye.”
Jenner images on recent LOVE magazine covers.
Image courtesy of LOVE magazine
Kendall Jenner has already been shooting selfies and photos of other favorite people and things along with posting images from her major jobs for as she can remember, sharing them on her social media, mainly Instagram, where she now has 74.7M followers.
What Kendall Jenner has accomplished thus far in scoring a major campaign – like shooting the covers of LOVE magazine – might be all fine and good but is this going to be a new trend among celebrities and influential people, not to mention, other non-photographers in general? After all, it’s not the first time we’ve seen models crossing over to photography as Helena Christensen and Ellen von Unwerth also went the way of the lens.
If this does become the new trend in hiring photographers for major campaigns, this could cause a lot of problems for the working professional photographer who may not have the weight of their name, the unlimited connections to high rollers in the fashion photography industry and/or the money to sustain the costs necessary for running their own photography business when having to compete with new photographers like Jenner, who appear to be getting these opportunities effortlessly.
Kendall Jenner with a Polaroid camera.
Image courtesy of Google.
It is already a concern among working photographers that the cost of services will win out over experience and the level of quality of work. Like with many other areas of life currently being effected in this matter, why would you pay a bunch of money to a reputable working photographer to shoot your extraordinary portraits or even your daughter’s wedding photos when your brother’s wife can churn out not-too-shabby looking images for a fraction of the cost or even for free? Now add celebrity or influential status and one can see where the outrage ensues.
More Jenner covers for LOVE magazine.
Image courtesy of LOVE magazine.
While many working photographers believe that the length of experience in shooting photography and the quality of images will trump the celebrity or influential photographer or even the non-photographer with less experience getting paid jobs that working photographers would otherwise be considered for, what happens when the new photographer’s work is on par with the work of well-known photographers for campaigns such as some of the work we’ve seen thus far from Kendall Jenner?
While I personally feel companies won’t be willing to sacrifice their brand or image to have a major celebrity or influential photographer or non-photographer come in to shoot their campaigns, working photographers may want to work on trying to stay ahead of the game as if anyone’s work is high-quality and proves to fit the visions of a company, then it’s fair game, no matter who you are.
Top Image: Andreea Raffin/Shutterstock
