And now for a bulletin from the world of high culture … in an era when the high is interested in getting as way down as it can. The National Portrait Gallery in London is no exception: here trouncing over the old high/low divide with that easiest and most often of cheap curator stunts - the Fashion Photography Show … and with the extra cojones of announcing this moldy old museum move as new and cutting edge. If it was a knife it couldnt get through soup. And we quote:

Face of Fashion focuses on the portraits of five outstanding fashion photographers from Europe and America: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Corinne Day, Steven Klein, Paolo Roversi and Mario Sorrenti. It is the first exhibition of its kind, celebrating the innovation and diversity of current fashion portraiture.

Cheap curatorial maneuvering to imply. “Don’t worry folks … its just like a Vanity Fair meets People spread with pricier admission … nothing to be bored by here … you can stroll around then go for drinks.”

The National Gallery is adding to the extra thrilling kick of guarunteed non-boring art with a healthy helping of popular wish fulfilment. Photographer Steven Klein kicks in a picture of Kevin Federline (K-Fed, Fedex, K. Fiddy, Kuff Faddy, etc. etc. etc.) with his throat slit. The NPG continues in heinous prose:

In the contemporary fashion world, models, actors, musicians and designers frequently swap places. The exhibition highlights the relationship between fashion and celebrity and illustrates the extraordinary intimacy that often develops between photographer and subject.

K. Fiddy is none of those but here’s betting the free PR from the photo more than makes up for breaking the paper thin logic of this paper thin concept of a show. And its gotta give Britney a bright moment in an otherwise so far bleak 2007.