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"  Tucked away in a far corner of Bergamot Station, the eight-acre Santa Monica art-gallery complex, former independent film producer Peter Fetterman presides over the eponymous gallery he opened almost 20 years ago when he decided to trade Hollywood for high-art photography. Through March 7th, the gallery plays host to two exhibits\u2014&amp;quot;Faces of Fashion&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Lillian Bassman: Women&amp;quot;\u2014the first of which features some of the most stunning archival fashion photography from legends such as Irving Penn, Len Prince, William Klein, and Ormond Gigli. The second, also a series of vintage fashion photography, is a tribute to noted lenswoman and good friend of the gallery, 92-year-old Lillian Bassman. While in Los Angeles last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Peter and ask him why he, a self-professed `non-fashion person,&amp;#039; decided to curate not just one but two exhibits focused on the subject. &amp;quot;Well, in these times\u2014and let me say, I hate when people say that, but it&amp;#039;s relevant\u2014fashion is the perfect escape,&amp;quot; Fetterman said. &amp;quot;I wanted to create something beautiful, something to take everybody&amp;#039;s minds off all the negative.&amp;quot; And the particular photographs in each collection?   I did a lot of research. I spent many months going through archives of fashion photography. I made selections, edited, edited some more.... As you could only feature a relatively small number of prints in the exhibit, what were your criteria for making the final cut?   There were no set criteria. I just trusted my editing instinct. Some photos made it in because they told an interesting story\u2014like Gigli&amp;#039;s Models in the Window\u2014and some made it in because they were so striking, I couldn&amp;#039;t forget them. Then, of course, from photo to photo, they had to make sense as a collection. This is a retrospective of the last century of fashion\u2014are there certain time periods within the last 100 years you think deserved more/less representation in the exhibit?  I think so, yes. I am partial to the &amp;#039;40 and &amp;#039;50s, the heyday of people like Irving Penn and Lillian Bassman and others featured in the exhibit. That was such an innovative era for fashion photography. The pictures then were more artful, less\u2014  Weird for weird&amp;#039;s sake?  Exactly! I look at what&amp;#039;s out there today, and some of it I do truly enjoy, but some of it.... I still prefer shots like this (points to Barry Lategan&amp;#039;s iconic 1966 portrait of Twiggy). What has the response been like since you opened a couple of weeks ago?   We&amp;#039;ve had a lot of interest, a lot of traffic. And not just from people who love fashion. There is a sort of fantasy to fashion photography that piques people&amp;#039;s interest. All the documentaries and books coming out lately having to do with fashion\u2014 It was good timing for these exhibits.   Very good timing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a10601/peter-fettermans-two-takes-on-fashion-384015/?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=ELM&link=-SMT-ELM>