The concept of glamour taps into our innermost desires. Though often unfairly limited to just the depiction of fashion and art, women or celebrities, the writer Virginia Postrel notes that glamour is bigger than that - it has power in the form of nonverbal persuasion. In a talk on glamour in 2014, Postrel notes that “glamour is something that creates a sense of projection and longing. The longing is by channeling our desires." An often misinterpreted field, the history of glamour photography lies somewhere between the realms of fashion photoshoots and pornography, originating in the early years of 1900s France. As the Golden Age of Hollywood flourished stateside, the turn of the century saw art and photography shift to the U.S. and Ruth Harriet Louise becoming one the most prolific photographers of the 1920s. As the decades progressed so too did the ideas around what defines glamour photography. It does not indeed pull from a limited pool of subjects, as seen in the work by Alain Daussin and in particular in the black and whitenudes of Gun Roze, as the artist captures how alluring the liberty of 1980s New York was compared to today. Thus, this style of photography questions our innermost desires - to let down our own guards and succumb to the allure of glamour in all of its forms.
