Steven Meisel, Photographer

Steven Meisel had a adolescence fascination with beauty, and so we're not surprised at how his life's turned out. Born in 1954, and showing early artistic talent, he copied from publications like Vogue, and later attended fine art school, majoring in fashion analogy.

An admirer of photographers such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Jerry Schatzberg and Bert Stern, he came to believe that illustrating was the past, and photography was the futurity. While working at Women's Wearable Daily, he approached Aristocracy Model Management, where his designs caught the attending of booker Oscar Reyes. Reyes allowed Meisel to photograph agency models (including Phoebe Cates), which he did at weekends in his apartment or on the street, while working as an illustrator during the week.

When some of these models took their portfolios to castings at Seventeen magazine, they were likewise carrying Meisel's future, in the form of his photos. A telephone call from impressed magazine staff followed, inviting him to work with them.

He's gone from that telephone call to being ane of the most successful manner photographers in the concern, working for the likes of Versace, Valentino, Dolce and Gabbana, Balenciaga, Louis Viutton and Calvin Klein, and with involvement in Prada campaigns since 2004. Equally a protégé of editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani, this native New Yorker has photographed every cover of Italian Faddy since 1988. Another backer is American Vogue's Anna Wintour, who praises his unmatched ability to choice and mold models, and his intuitive powers: "He's but sensational and has been since day one".

Meisel has been credited with promoting the careers of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and many more than, while his 1983 shoot for designer Stephen Sprouse helped his friend'south meteoric ascension to fame.

The American shot some other acquaintance, Madonna, for Vanity Off-white and Louis Vuitton, as well as creating the covers for some of her singles and albums, including Similar a Virgin, and providing pictures for her 1992 book, Sex. She says that she respected Meisel's care: "He treated each photo shoot like it was a modest film and insisted we create a grapheme each fourth dimension nosotros worked, just and then would make fun of the archetypes we created". She also admitted that they got forth because they're both divas!

Steven Meisel isn't afraid to be provocative. In Faddy Italian republic's September 2006 issue, he caused a stir by questioning the restrictions on liberty in post ix/eleven America, with models portrayed as terrorists and police officers. The July 2008 edition was devoted to black models, in response to the style industry's increasing racism. He found that despite it existence the mag's best-selling month ever, information technology had no effect on the major shows, complaining that: "It's the same as information technology always was and that's the distressing thing for me". In fact, he thinks it's worse present.

How practise we sum upward a photographer who has been described as "an absolute chameleon" by the curator of the LA Canton Musuem of Fine art? He's certainly a master of re-invention, approaching every shoot equally a new beginning. But mayhap we should admire him most for not beingness afraid to place trends in a social context.

The featured photo is Model Karlie Kloss For Vogue Italia Dec. 2011.

Vogue Italia October 1989 Christy In Vogue Italia October 1989 Photographer Steven Meisel