This exhibition, organized by Carol Squiers and Vince Aletti, presents innovative fashion photography of the last few years, from photographers who draw on a range of influences, including art, sexuality, narrative, digital media, and youth culture. It also considers the impact of graphic design on the way that fashion photography is presented.

The exhibition is arranged into sections according to photographer. Each photog's work is summarized by one large, glossy, original photographic print. An array of tear sheets and magazine covers from both mainstream and independent publications surrounds the shot. The goal is to put that image into context of the "visual narrative' from which it is drawn.

Spreads range from Steven Klein's Le Gôut des Robes, originally published in Vogue Paris in October 2007 and summarized here in the blogspot ToujoursEnVogue. It shows manicured housewives roaming the aisles of local supermarkets in fabulous fussily-printed garb.

Another wonderful spread: Tim Walker's stunning A Magic World (shown in the photo essay above). Originally published in Vogue Italia in January 2008, Walker's spread takes inspiration from Horst. P. Horst's photograph of Dali costumes to portray fanciful fashion in an ethereal, fantasy-world setting. As Roberta Smith noted in her excellent review in the New York Times, it's Hieronymous Bosch meets the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Another spread shows a series of models stalking out their territory in an ex-urb sub-division, their Blade Runner-esque garb eerily in sync with the surreal Day-Glo emptiness of the suburban strip. The final shot is a model lying face down on the ground, bright red hair contrasted with a series of Froot Loops floating in a puddle of milk that leads from her lips to an upturned bowl. It's one of the most effective images to date to channel the recent housing bust and the upending of the American dream that it represents. Yet this is a fashion photograph, whose end goal, as the center's press release states, is to promote high-end style and beauty products. Extraordinary.

Other photographers include Steven Meisel, Cindy Sherman, Mario Sorrenti, Nick Knight, Richard Burbridge, Miles Aldridge, Paolo Roversi, and Sølve Sundsbø. The overall result – contemporary life through a creatively cracked mirror - is a disturbingly beautiful take on the absurd excesses to which we have so recently aspired.

My only quibble: the curators' decision to show the magazine tearsheets synced together doesn't do the photography justice. At the minimum, the tearsheets could have been displayed side by side, but not run together, to avoid awkward raggedness as the two pages meet. But this is a minor footnote to what is a very very interesting show. If you're in New York betwen now and May, go see it.