On Radical Modernism, “Photographism,” and Irving Penn

Grace Coddington

Grace Coddington’s remarkable contributions to contemporary fashion and image-making have shaped the public understanding of fashion as art and propelled her to a status enjoyed by only a mere handful of editors and stylists throughout the history of magazine publishing.

Coddington holds the rare distinction of having worked with some of fashion’s most celebrated photographers both in front of and behind the camera. She worked initially as a model, appearing in editorials photographed by Helmut Newton, Norman Parkinson and Guy Bourdin, among others. In 1968, she began working as a fashion editor at British Vogue, where she remained for nineteen years, rising to the position of Fashion Director and initiating her long-term working relationship with Anna Wintour. In 1988, Coddington joined Wintour at American Vogue, embarking on a creative odyssey incomparable among living fashion editors. Coddington’s on-set collaborations at Vogue have brought about many of the most iconic photographs in fashion history.

In 2012, Coddington published Grace: A Memoir, an insightful and witty chronicle of her life and observations gleaned over nearly six decades working at the highest levels of fashion and media. Much of Coddington’s signature work as a stylist and editor appear in 2002’s Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue and 2016’s Grace: The American Vogue Years. In 2006, Coddington published The Catwalk Cats, a comic depiction of her fashionable cats, Henri, Coco, Baby, Puff and Bart.

Coddington’s namesake fragrance, Grace by Grace Coddington, was created in 2016 in collaboration with Comme des Garçons Parfum. The fragrance, inspired by her lifelong love of roses, is packaged in a distinctive bottle alluding to her fondness for cats.

Coddington has received two lifetime achievement awards, one from the CFDA in 2002 and another at the Clio Awards in 2016. In 2009, Coddington received the prestigious Isabella Blow award.

Coddington currently contributes to both American Vogue and British Vogue. She is based in New York City.

Jefferson Hack

Jefferson Hack (b. 1971) is a creative director, curator and co-founder of Dazed Media, a global independent media company founded in 1991 that comprises print, digital and video brands AnOther, Dazed, Dazed China, Dazed Korea, Dazed Beauty, Dazed Studio and NOWNESS. Hack has curated exhibitions and festivals including the Dazed 20th anniversary photographic exhibition at Somerset House, YOHOOD festival in Shanghai with Daniel Arsham; and more recently Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder at 180 The Strand during Frieze featuring artists Doug Aitken, Juliana Huxtable, Jenn Nkiru and Harley Weir among others. Hack has edited multiple books with Phaidon Press, Steidl and Rizzoli, most recently We Can’t Do this Alone: Jefferson Hack the System (Rizzoli, 2016). Hack is on the Board of the Creative Industries Federation, the Advisory Board for the Fashion Trust Arabia and is a member of the British Fashion Council’s Press Committee. Hack is a prominent supporter of humanitarian and environmental charities most notably, an advocate for Crisis Action and Parlay for the Oceans.

Antwaun Sargent

Antwaun Sargent is a writer, editor, curator living in New York City. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and various art publications. Sargent is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture) and the editor of Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists (DAP). He is also a director at Gagosian Gallery.