A naked mannequin is like a blank piece of paper just waiting to be turned into something beautiful. This photograph titled “the beginning of fashion in Paris” perfectly exemplifies the beginning stages of creativity. As proprietors of fashion, we only see the product, the final result. The point of staging this photo this way is to imagine the process. What the designer sees before the magic happens. According to Jeff Wall in the New York Times, staged photos are constructed to be viewed as paintings are. A still life image of a moment instead of a painted version of a moment. That is what makes these staged images so beautiful. The beauty of the picture was curated behind the scenes and set up perfectly. The artist had control of the focus of the photo instead of just capturing an instantaneous moment by accident. Wall says that running around trying to find a photo is exhausting for photographers. Everything in this photo was planned from the writing on the chalkboard to the stains on the mannequin. Since these photos are staged they hold a certain level of intricacy and attention to detail that a photo that was taken on a whim does not.
