A fun movie.

If I write from time to time about fashion photography in these pages it’s not because I am some sort of fashion maven, but simply because I like good pictures. To see why, take a look at a recently released movie named The September Issue which details the making of the eponymous 2007 issue of Vogue magazine under it fearsome editor of over twenty years, Anna Wintour.

Known as Nuclear Wintour in the business – because when she’s done the only things left standing are the buildings – it chronicles the production of the key issue of the magazine and the relationship between Editor Wintour and Art Director Grace Coddington, the latter a famous model before a car accident ended that career.

Wintour is the scalpel to Coddington’s more sensitive feeler. They make a great team and their sheer professionalism does much to discount the pretentiousness with which the fashion world is so often associated.

The scenes with photographers Mario Testino in Rome or Patrick Demarchelier in Paris show just how tough and businesslike this world is.

As for Wintour’s silences, they strike more fear in the viewer than anything you find in an otherwise male dominated business world. The movie is available for rent on Netflix On Demand or iTunes, and is highly recommended.

And by the way, the frenetic world portrayed by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada looks just plain silly compared to the real, hard headed atmosphere of Wintour’s world, but it bears re-watching for some innocent hilarity.

For Apple fans, there’s not one revolting PC to be seen in either movie. OK, just the one in the loser’s home in the Prada movie, which you would expect.