Identity - Fashion - Harley Weir

by Victoria

Harley Weir is a fashion photographer focusing on the ideas of youth and, most recently, boundaries. She attended Central Saint Martins college in London in 2010. In an interview with Bullet Magazine, Weir states her work focuses on eliciting reactions from people, "moving people" with any emotion: "It doesn’t really matter what emotion it is really... It’s so difficult to move people.”  In 2014, Weir was discovered through her Tumblr site and, since then, she has done commercial photo shoots for fashion brands including Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney,  Kendall Jenner (for Calvin Klein) and Maison Martin Magiela. She focuses on youth and beauty making her work perfect for the fashion industry. Weir's first solo exhibition titled Boundaries is currently on display at FOAM gallery in Amsterdam.

http://harleyweir.tumblr.com

Weir's website is minimalistic, offering images and only the occasional link. It is not effective at representing her as an artist because it lacks an artist statement, which would give context and understanding to her work. Her Tumblr is simple, but it is missing clarifying text. 

 Although she is able to create breathtaking images,depth is missing. Weir is more focused on creating an aesthetic than she is in conceptual ideas. In an interview with the NY Times she said that she experienced problems with her classmates at CSM because she wasn't creating conceptual work:  

“It was frowned upon to do something that was good looking or less considered, more intuitive,” she says. “But I don’t like the idea of coming to an art project knowing what you want — for me, I find photography a way of learning, to figure something out with an image."  

Weir does not find meaning until after she has made images or a body of work. This makes her work visually cohesive, but incoherent in meaning. It also explains her body of work Boundaries. The images from Boundaries achieve a similar aesthetic, but the motivation behind the work feels forced and  inauthentic, like an after though. Foam's website states:  

"But even as she crosses the lines of what usually holds people apart, on personal as well as political levels she is not out to make any statements. The exhibition therefore reads as a visual poem, open to interpretation."

 Why would she create work if she is not out to make any statements?  Even without concepts, Weir is a widely successful fashion photographer   because her images are intimate, creating a connection between the viewer and the figurative work she presents. 

Her photographs possess a quality of belonging to a time that is not past, present or future. Through her precise balance of soft, natural light and a warm color pallette she is able to evoke nostalgia.

Do you think it is valid to create work and then search for meaning? Is that "cheating"? Do you think there is distinct line between fashion photography and fine art photography?