Luxury and visual culture

Abstract

This book addresses the important question of what appears as luxury in contemporary visual culture. The author introduces the reader to the concept of visual culture to clarify the transformation of the private and public spheres of luxury in contemporary advanced cultures. • Luxury in contemporary visual culture is contextualized by linking its precise sphere – abundance – to those of fashion and art, photography, cinema, television, and social media that configure the structures of contemporary visual culture. • The visual representations of contemporary culture are considered as luxury-branded visual representations and the idea of visual culture as the portrayal of luxurious photographic, cinematic, and televisual selves. • Examinations of the roles of contemporary fashion and art in visual culture are employed as conduits to later analyses of visual consumers, luxury-branded and other visual representations produced by twentieth-century and contemporary fashion photographers and filmmakers, television, and social media producers in everyday life. • The ways in which luxury is utilized and operates in twentieth-century and contemporary cinema and television are investigated through the luxury lifestyles, lavish choices, luxurious values, and occasionally wayward inclinations sustaining the new voluptuousness and behaviors. • The new role of the luster of the digital luxury fashion house is addressed before the conclusion. Luxury and Visual Culture presents a thoughtful, yet user-friendly explanation of how luxury is undergoing numerous shifts in visual culture. It is vital reading for all scholars and students in critical luxury studies and visual culture, fashion theory, contemporary art, photography, cinema, television, and social media studies.