As the vehicle of a certain reaction against the conventionally beautiful,
photography has served to enlarge vastly our notion of what is aesthetically
pleasing. Sometimes this reaction is in the name of truth. Sometimes it is in
the name of sophistication or of prettier lies: thus, fashion photography has
been developing, over more than a decade, a repertoire of paroxysmic gestures
that shows the unmistakable influence of Surrealism. (“Beauty will be
convulsive,” Breton wrote, “or it will not be at all.”)
