Fashion challenged: portraits of radical beauty – in pictures

These striking images from Adorned, an exhibition at Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, tackle notions of fashion and beauty around the world

Main image: Untitled. Photograph: © Giovanni Corabu & Roberto Ortu

  • Untitled, from the series Boys of Hong Kong, 2018

    Alexandra Leese’s portraits of boys and men in Hong Kong address misconceptions about masculinity or attractivenessAdorned: The Fashionable Show is at Foam, Amsterdam, until 11 March
    Untitled, from the series Boys of Hongkong 2018

  • Untitled, from Boys of Hong Kong

    ‘Very often Asian men are met with a lot of prejudice and are seen as less attractive and more effeminate – whatever these stereotypes may be,’ Leese told i-D magazine
    Untitled, from the series Boys of Hongkong 2018

  • Untitled, from Boys of Hong Kong

    ‘I wanted to counter this and create something that celebrates a range of Asian masculine beauty,’ she continued. ‘I wanted to show the world that these stereotypes are just stereotypes’
    Untitled, from the series Boys of Hongkong 2018

  • Untitled, Sardinia, 2018

    London photographer Giovanni Corabi and Italian creative director Roberto Ortu explore fashion, migration and identity in Sardinia to chart how the place is evolving and transforming as new communities form on the island
    Untitled

  • Untitled, Sardinia, 2018

    Ortu is from Sardinia and a keen observer of its traditions, which ‘are strong and can sometimes feel heavy,’ he told It’s Nice That. ‘Many decide to leave the island and, for the ones who stay, it’s hard to find their own voice’
    Untitled, Sardinia, 2018Ortu is from Sardinia and a keen observer of its traditions, which ‘are strong and can sometimes feel heavy,’ he told It’s Nice That. ‘Many decide to leave the island and, for the ones who stay, it’s hard to find their own voice’

  • Untitled, Sardinia, 2018

    The pair spent two weeks travelling across the island, and the resulting series is a tribute, they say, to ‘the rebellious youth who lives on the island but are an active part of where the culture is headed, somewhere between tradition and modernity’
    Untitled, Sardinia, 2018The pair spent two weeks travelling across the island, and the resulting series is a tribute, they say, to ‘the rebellious youth who lives on the island but are an active part of where the culture is headed, somewhere between tradition and modernity’

  • Thoom

    Lebanese artist Mohamad Abdouni chronicles peripheral communities in the Middle East
    Thoom Lebanese artist Mohamad Abdouni chronicles peripheral communities in the Middle East

  • George, 2016

    Using friends and peers, he visualises the history of a place and culture that, on the surface, are at odds with one another
    George, 2016

  • Fuck You If You Judge Me in This State (Yumna), 2019

    Abdouni is a film-maker, photographer and editor of Beirut-based photojournal Cold Cuts
    Fuck you if you judge me in this state (Yumna), 2019

  • Untitled, 2018

    Catherine Servel’s average-sized models make a compelling case for using subjects who are more representative of the wider world. This series appeared in the magazine Allure
    Untitled, from the series Allure © Catherine Servel courtesy of the artist

  • New Jersey, 2017

    Arielle Bobb-Willis is a New York photographer who challenges the notion of fashion photography with colourful images of her models posing anywhere from Brooklyn and the Bowery to New Jersey and New Orleans
    New Jersey 05 2017

  • New Jersey, 2017

    The ‘strained, colour-blocked bodies are crimped and tense, at odds with their environment and with the garments (or objects) that cover them,’ writes Foam in a magazine accompanying the exhibition
    New Jersey 03 2017

  • New Jersey, 2017

    The poses are powerful and the images bold
    New Jersey 01 2017

  • Untitled, from the series Family Work, 2018

    Florida-born Hadar Pitchon shoots for fashion magazines such as L’Officiel Hommes, but his series Family Work has a much more personal perspective
    Untitled from the series Family Work 2018

  • Untitled, from Family Work, 2018

    Pitchon’s grandmother, who survived the Holocaust, poverty and cancer, is his inspiration here
    Untitled, from Family Work, 2018

  • Untitled, from Family Work, 2018

    The images are part of a project in which Pitchon recreates ads for luxury brands, but starring his family members at home in sometimes glamorous, sometimes playful poses
    Untitled from the series Family Work 2018 c Hadar Pitchon courtesy of the artist (5)

  • Cerasinus, from the series Albus, 2015

    Who is beautiful? That’s the question Justin Dingwall asks in his series Albus and A Seat at the Table, using non-models to feature greater representation
    Cerasinus, from the series Albus

  • Pearl I, from the series A Seat at the Table, 2018

    A Seat at the Table features the South African model Moostapha Saidi and is about ‘the aesthetics of vitiligo’. Dingwall says: ‘The images are not about race or fashion, but about perception, and what we subjectively perceive as beautiful’
    Pearl I, from the series A Seat at the Table

  • Mob I, from Albus, 2015

    The Johannesburg-based photographer’s series Albus looks at albinism. People with the condition are frequently discriminated against and the subject of superstition and violence. The portraits feature Thando Hopa, the first women with albinism to appear on the cover of Vogue, and model Sanele Xaba (seen here), who spoke with the Guardian about diversity in modelling
    Mob I, from the series Albus
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