Kad bi barem ....

photo by: ::kate::

Irvin Penn

"Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world. ...Very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe." —Irving Penn, 1975.

Irvin Penn ( 16.06. 1917 . 07.10.2009 ) je bio američki fotograf poznat po svojim portretimai modnoj fotografiji.
Penn je studirao slikarstvo na Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art i diplomirao 1938 god.
Penn je godinama radio kao modni fotograf za amaerički Vogue.
1947 godine je upoznao model Lisu Fanssagrives za koju se vjenčao 1950.
Svoj studio je osnovao 1953 i bio je jedan od prvih fotografa koji je postavio  subjekt ispred obićne sive ili bijele pozadine te na taj način  efikasno iskoristio njihovu jednostavnost i dobi čistoći i jasnoću fotografije

Portreti

Bridget Bardo

Pablo Picasso, 1957

Jean Cocteau

 YSL,1983

Horst P. Horst

In the history of twentieth-century fashion and portrait photography, Horst's contribution figures as one of the most artistically significant and long lasting, spanning as it did the sixty years between 1931 and 1991. During this period, his name became legendary as a one-word photographic byline, and his photographs came to be seen as synonymous with the creation of images of elegance, style and rarefied glamour.

Born on 14 August 1906, Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann was the second son of a prosperous middle class Protestant shop owner, Max Bohrmann and his wife, Klara Schoenbrodt.

The first pictures that carried a Horst credit line appeared in the December 1931 issue of French Vogue. It was a full-page advertisement showing a model in black velvet holding a Klytia scent bottle in one hand with the other hand raised elegantly above it... Horst's real breakthrough as a published fashion and portrait photographer was in the pages of British Vogue... starting with the 30 March 1932 issue showing three fashion studies and a full-page portrait of the daughter of Sir James Dunn, the art patron and supporter of Surrealism.

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War was declared between America and Germany on 7 December 1941. Horst was called up for service, though he was not officially enrolled until July 1943. The late 1930s and early 1940s were his most productive years, during which he excelled at working with 10-x-8 inch colour transparencies both for covers and for portrait and fashion sittings...

As a typical example of wartime escapism, the Rita Hayworth film Cover Girl (1944) provided Horst with the opportunity to produce one of his most sumptuous film-star covers in a montage of seven different portraits of the cover girl Susann Shaw set against a silk design. His picture of Loretta Young became an almost immediate classic when it was featured in a special edition of Vogue which included masterpieces of photography selected by (classic photographer Edward) Steichen to show off the first hundred years of the medium.

Pictures taken in Europe in the 1950s, away from studio interference from the new Vogue editor, had a startling plein-air quality. They ranged from Ian Fleming shot at Kitzbeuhel to an extended essay on the German conductor Herbert von Karajan in his modern sports car at his Austrian retreat... Horst's first important trip to Austria occurred in 1952, to work on a major advertising campaign with the new model Suzy Parker, who would become a major star in the 1960s before attempting a film career. In America that same year, he took his first lifestyle house and interior photographs; the sitter was Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlboro and now MMe. Jacques Balsan. This series, encouraged by Diana Vreeland during her time at Vogue, was to continue into the 1980s in both Vogue and House and Garden and was to be collected in the book Horst: Interiors by Barbara Plumb (1983).

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The 1960s started well for American Vogue with the appointment of the larger than life 'Empress of Fashion', Diana Vreeland, as Editor-in-Chief. Vreeland served from 1961 until 1971, when a change of approach was deemed necessary. Horst was assigned some of the leading players of the time and produced a number of archetypal images of this energetic decade.


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The 1970s remains the decade that good, timeless style overlooked, and work for Horst was necessarily sparse... However, Horst's rediscovery by a new group of 1980's style-seeking enthusiasts resulted in increasing commissions...

Horst was commissioned to take nine photographs which appeared in February 1980. This was the most popular issue of Life in that year, selling 1.5 million copies. It led to a book contract and continued work with (editor James) Watters, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of early Hollywood stars made him the ideal interviewer as the two men travelled round America to produce their best-selling book Return Engagement: Faces to Remember - Then and Now (1984).

Horst' career can be said to have reached Old Master status when the world's most famous pop goddess, Madonna, created her celebrated hymn to classic fashion photography with her single Vogue in 1990. In the video directed by David Fincher, she posed as a recreation of Horst's most iconic fashion image, a model seen from behind, wearing a partially tied, back-laced corset made by Detolle.

In his approach to portraiture, Horst set out to create a parallel aspirational universe in which his subjects became mysterious and alluring. Bruce Weber, one of many photographers influenced by Horst, artfully described his feelings about Horst's work in a 1992 television documentary: 'The elegance of his photographs ... took you to another place, very beautifully ... the untouchable quallity of the people is really interesting as it gives you something of a distance ... it's like seeing somebody from another world ... and you wonder who that person is and you really want to know that person and really want to fall inlove with that person'.

-- excerpted from Terrence Pepper's essay "Always in Vogue" from the book Horst Portraits, 60 Years of Style. National Portrait Gallery, London, 2001

Madonna by Mario testino

Mario Testino

Mario Testino (rođen je 30.listopada 1954 u Limi,Peru) je peruvijanski modni fotograf.

Testino je pohađao Universidad del Pacifico,Pontificia Universidad catolica del Peru i University of San Diego.

Godine 1982. Testino se preselio u London gdje i danas živi.

Testino je radio za najpoznatije modne magazine kao što su Vogue i Vanity Fair

 Osim modnih editorijala Testino je snima i poznate celebrity kao što je Lady Di i njezini sinovi.Također je uspješno surađivao sa poznatim  glumicama kao što su Kim Besinger, Cameron Diaz,Julia Roberts i s  pjevačicama kao Madonna, Kylie Minogue i Lady Gaga.

Testinovi radovi se izlažu u mnogim prestižnim galerijama i muzejima širom svijeta

U Phillips de Pury & Co aukcijskoj kući, u Londonu, 5. lipnja 2010 otvorena je izložba i aukcija njegovih radova.

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Ellen Von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth među trideset je najboljih fotografa na svijetu, a prije nego što je ušla u svijet fotografije bila je supermodel. Teško je reći u čemu je uspješnija, ali pravu slavu stekla je fotografijom.
Točnije, onoga dana kada je fotografirala Claudiju Schiffer za reklamu za traperice Guess. No, ispred njezina objektiva našle su se sve, od Claudije do Naomi, kao i sve one prije i poslije njih.
U najnovijoj luksuznoj monografiji “Fräulein”, u izdanju Taschena, objavljenoj u samo 1500 numeriranih primjeraka, odala je priznanje svim tim ženama na tisuću provokativnih fotografija. Tu su njezine seksi fetišističke slike Claudije Schiffer, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman, Kate Moss, Vanesse Paradis, Britney Spears, Eve Mendes, Lindsay Lohan, Dite von Teese, Adriane Lime, Carle Bruni, Eve Green, Christine Aguilere, Monice Bellucci i mnogih drugih koje su s njom radile.
Cijeli njezin fotografski opus pršti od seksepila, strasti i fetiša, a publika je često bila iznenađena saznanjem da iza tih fotografija stoji žena.
- Ellen von Unwerth je žena u muškom svijetu koja razumije da žene žele biti seksi i ženstvene - rekla je za nju Katherine Betts, urednica mode u Vogueu.

Ikona modne scene

Ellenine fotografije slavnih modela, pjevačica i glumica uistinu su neke od najboljih ikada snimljenih fotografija koje svrstavamo u erotske, iako je riječ o čistom fetišu u kojem nema zabranjenih stvari.
Žene u muškim odijelima s cigarama u ustima, Kate Moss kao ženska verzija Ripa Kirbyja, zreli modeli u pozama Lolite, Schifferica nevina pogleda koja medi gricka uho i još koješta što je Ellen uspjela napraviti u gotovo dvadeset godina fotografske karijere obilježile su ne samo fotografsku, već i modnu scenu za koju je Ellen prava ikona.
Ona je samouka fotografkinja, mnogi kažu “instinktivna”, koja je svoj fetišizam sjajno predstavila odmah na početku karijere radeći u crno-bijeloj tehnici, specifičnoj za osamdesete, a manje za devedesete kada je počela.
Osim tehnike, Ellen ima još jednu zanimljivu naviku, a to je fotografiranje na vanjskim lokacijama uz obavezan scenarij. U studiju uglavnom radi portrete, ali sve ostalo u pravilu snima “negdje”.

U slavu ženske seksualnosti

- Tehnika je bez sumnje od velike pomoći ako želite sjajnu fotografiju, ali ja više volim atmosferu. Opsesija tehnikom muška je stvar. Tako se dečki igraju. Za njih je to igračka, ali kada u nečemu postanete izvanredni, onda morate početi tražiti nešto drugo, novo, neku novu igračku. Ja radije tražim neku novu lokaciju ili neki novi model - rekla je jednom Ellen.
Niz njezinih fotografija, ne samo sa slavnim licima, pokazuju koliko je za nju važna ta atmosfera, poput fotografije dviju žena odjevenih u odjeću Vivienne Westwood kako rade u nekom polju u jednom engleskom selu.
Takva je i njezina “Fräulein”, sjajna mješavina fantazije, fetiša i voajerizma u kojoj se ni ona ni njezini modeli ne ustručavaju koristiti igračke poput lisica i bičeva, ali sve je to daleko, predaleko od bilo kakve vulgarnosti. Tim fotografijama Ellen slavi žene, ženstvenost i seksualnost. I ne samo to, jer Ellen je uspjelo iz svojih modela izvući njihovu divlju stranu, kakvu smo malokad imali priliku vidjeti.

Newtonov model

Ništa drugo od Ellen ne treba ni očekivati, jer ionako je od početka radila drukčije od drugih. Dok mediji sve više forsiraju fotografije modela s modnih pista, ona s tim istim modelima radi izvan modnih događaja i prikazuje ih u nekom novom i nepoznatom okruženju.
Kao svoj uzor Ellen često ističe Helmuta Newtona, a s njim je radila samo jednom u životu, i to dok je bila model. Kako je jednom prilikom sama rekla, nije bila njegov tip modela, ali navodno mu se svidjelo njezino prezime.

Mnogi su pokušavali otkriti kako Ellen uspijeva napraviti tako inspirativne i moćne fotografije. Neki kažu da je sve počelo kada je bila tinejdžerica i kada je radila u njemačkom cirkusu u kojem je svake večeri, nakon svake točke radila krug ispred publike u mrežastim čarapama.
Drugi pak smatraju da njezina želja i volja potječu iz vremena kada je imala dvije godine. Tada je Ellen postala siroče i imala je dosta teško odrastanje. Godinama se povlačila po udomiteljskim obiteljima u Bavariji. Kao tinejdžerica doselila se u neku komunu u Münchenu i našla prvi posao, onaj u cirkusu.
No, što god bila njezina inspiracija, glamur njezinih fotografija je jedinstven.