Photos taken by John Rawlings is among shown images at Coming into Fashion, an exhibition reviewing fashion and fashion photography over the past century. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Herschdorfer says when Nast bought Vogue in 1905, he started to work with some of the best fashion illustrators, and that is why the magazine produced beautiful covers, some of which are now on show at UCCA.

"Later, when Nast hired photographers, he did not go to technicians who knew how to handle a camera," says Herschdorfer. "But he went to recognized artists and asked if they would do fashion photography for the magazine."

She says many photographers featured at the exhibition were trained as artists and were much more interested in art than in fashion; this is why their photos still look powerful today.

Commenting on the photos, Angelica Cheung, Vogue China's editor-in-chief, says that because there was no photo editing software and the camera functions were very limited in the old days, there was an image, and a strong point of view in the photographers' heads before they took the pictures.

Today, technological developments offer many possibilities, she says, and photographers, as a result, tend to rely too much on post production.

"Technology is not the problem. It is the impact of technology on the way photographers create that causes the problem.