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# desember 2011
Ellen von Unwerth / Stiven Meisel / David Downton / Mark Rothko / Martin Schoeller / Ray Caesar / Jonathan Bartlett
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# desember 2011
Hedi Slimane / Stiven Meisel / David Downton / Mark Rothko / Martin Schoeller / Ray Caesar / Jonathan Bartlett
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# desember 2011
Stiven Meisel / David Downton / Mark Rothko / Martin Schoeller / Ray Caesar / Jonathan Bartlett / Ellen von Unwerth
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# desember 2011
Ray Caesar / Mark Rothko / Martin Schoeller / Jonathan Bartlett / Ellen von Unwerth / Stiven Meisel / David Downton
Photographer specializing in erotic femininity
Fashion world Ellen von Unwerth: style, elegant, evocative & erotic Her work has been published in top magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, Twill, L’Uomo Vogue and I-D
E llen von Unwerth (born 1954 in Frankfurt, Germany) is a photographer and director,
Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), specializing in erotic femininity. She worked Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout as a fashion model for ten years herself before (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back moving behind the camera, and now makes To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album fashion, editorial, and advertising photographs. Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and Ellen von Unwerth found fame when she first R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That photographed Claudia Schiffer. Her work has Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short been published in top magazines like Vogue, films for fashion designers, and music videos Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, Twill, for several pop musicians. L’Uomo Vogue and I-D, and she has published She has directed many commercials and web several books of photography. She won first films for top brands like Revlon, Clinique, prize at the International Festival of Fashion Equinox and others, many featuring celebrities. Photography in 1991. Since our last “100” issue, Ellen von Unwerth Von Unwerth did promotional photography has opened a studio in New York, and her for Duran Duran from 1994–1997 and did fashion work, showcased in Vogue, has some photography for their 1990 album matured. Her well-received 1995 collection Liberty and 1997 album Medazzaland. Her of fashion photos, Snaps, will soon be joined work has been seen on other album covers, by a second book, which should give her fans such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991), Cathy a surprise: Titled Couples, it will feature new Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet pictures of people and animals.
Von Unwerth brings an energetic femininity to fashion photography-call it girl power. The models in her pictures seem to have real identities, and the photos often convey a sexuality without reducing the subjects to sex objects. Von Unwerth can relate to models because she used to be one. “People couldn’t believe it when I took my first pictures because they think models are stupid,” she says. “When I’m shooting, even if what I see is not so great, I keep taking pictures to make the model feel good and to give her self-esteem. I like the women to be strong, even if they’re looking raunchy or are in a bordello; they always know what they’re doing.” The key is letting the models move. “When I was a model, most photographers liked to keep me in one position and I found that frustrating,” explains von Unwerth. “So I give the people I shoot as much freedom as possible to be spontaneous.” Hence, a favorite moment from a recent Vogue shoot in Mexico. “Naomi Von Unwerth covers of mazine’s.
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of the fashion world. Ubiquitous, bold, and imaginative, her work features the faces and bodies of today’s top models and celebrities, and gives her famous male counterparts, such as Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh, a run for their money. What makes a von Unwerth photo? Sex, fun, sex, daring, sex, theater, and yes, more sex.” - Te Neues, publisher of Spezial Fotografie Portfolio #28) The key is letting the models move. “When I was a model, most photographers liked to keep me in one position and I found that frustrating,” explains von Unwerth. “So I give the people I shoot as much freedom as possible to be spontaneous.” Hence, a favorite moment from a recent Vogue shoot in Mexico. “Naomi Campbell pricked her leg on a cactus, so she lifted her long dress really high in order to scratch it,” von Unwerth says. “I snapped the picture and I think it’s a very real moment, but I’m absolutely sure that vogue won’t use that shot because her dress is wrinkled.” Her work has been seen on other album covers, such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991), Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. len von Unwerth (born 1954 in Frankfurt, Germany) is a photographer and director, specializing in erotic femininity. She worked as a fashion model for ten years herself before moving behind the camera, and now makes fashion, editorial, and advertising photographs. Ellen von Unwerth found fame when she first photographed Claudia Schiffer. Her work has been published in top magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, Twill, L’Uomo Vogue and I-D, and she has published several books of photography. She won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography in 1991. Von Unwerth did promotional photography for Duran Duran from 1994–1997 and did some photography for their 1990 album Liberty and 1997 album Medazzaland. Her work has been seen on other album covers, such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991), Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singersongwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps
Claudia Schiffer & Joseph Gordon-Levitt by Ellen von Unwerth for GQ April 2008 5
Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. From the moment Ellen von Unwerth picked up a camera in the mid-1980s, she has held the fashion world captive with a style that is at once elegant, evocative, and erotic. A former model, she began by snapping photos of her model friends, but soon after, von Unwerth emerged as a rising fashion star, shooting for Vogue and, by 1989, the edgy campaigns for Guess that made Claudia Schiffer a household name – an ad campaign that von Unwerth continues photographing to this day. Her riotous and seductive images have filled four books (one forthcoming) and appeared inside and on the covers of almost two decades’ worth of fashion and celebrity magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, I-D and V. The German – born mother of one will no doubt go down in fashion history as a pioneering female photographer, but it is her almost preternatural sense of what is sexy that separates her from all the rest.
Ellen von Unwerth’s work offers a distinctly sexual and playful version of fashion and beauty photography. In addition to her career as fashion photographer, film-maker, and video director, her work has been collected in numerous books and two photo-novellas. Von Unwerth’s first book, Snaps, was published in 1994 followed by Wicked (1998), and Couples (1999). Her photo-novella Revenge was published in 2003 accompanied by exhibitions in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. Her photographs have been widely exhibited internationally including in Archaeology of Elegence (2001-2), and Fashioning Fiction exhibited at MoMA/Queens in 2004. After a decade as a fashion model, von Unwerth brought a first-hand knowledge of the kinetic energy of fashion photo shoots to the creation of her own photographs. Her sensual campaigns for Guess in the early 1990s launched von Unwerth’s commercial career, and subsequently she has created campaigns for Baccardi, Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Diesel, Chanel, Miu Miu, Blumarine as well as a series of publicity advertisements for HBO’s Sex and
What is sexy? GQ April 2008
Magical Mystery Tour
the City. Von Unwerth has also ventured into directing short films for Azzedine Alaïa and Katherine Hamnett, music videos for artists such as Duran Duran and commercials for Baccardi and Clinique. of the fashion world. Ubiquitous, bold, and imaginative, her work features the faces and bodies of today’s top models and celebrities, and gives her famous male counterparts, such as Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh, a run for their money. What makes a von Unwerth photo? Sex, fun, sex, daring, sex, theater, and yes, more sex.” - Te Neues, publisher of Spezial Fotografie Portfolio #28) The key is letting the models move. “When I was a model, most photographers liked to keep me in one position and I found that frustrating,” explains von Unwerth. “So I give the people I shoot as much freedom as possible to be spontaneous.” Hence, a favorite moment from a recent Vogue shoot in Mexico. “Naomi Campbell pricked her leg on a cactus, so she lifted her long dress really high in order to scratch it,” von Unwerth says. “I snapped the picture and I think it’s a very real moment, but I’m absolutely sure that vogue won’t use that shot because her dress is wrinkled.” Her work has been seen on other album covers, such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991),
Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. len von Unwerth (born 1954 in Frankfurt, Germany) is a photographer and director, specializing in erotic femininity. She worked as a fashion model for ten years herself before moving behind the camera, and now makes fashion, editorial, and advertising photographs. Ellen von Unwerth found fame when she first photographed Claudia Schiffer. Her work has been published in top magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, Twill, L’Uomo Vogue and I-D, and she has published several books of photography. She won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography in 1991. Von Unwerth did promotional photography for Duran Duran from 1994–1997 and did some photography for their 1990 album
Liberty and 1997 album Medazzaland. Her work has been seen on other album covers, such as Bananarama’s Pop Life (1991), Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? (1996), Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. From the moment Ellen von Unwerth picked up a camera in the mid-1980s, she has held the fashion world captive with a style that is at once elegant, evocative, and erotic. A former model, she began by snapping photos of her model friends, but soon after, von Unwerth emerged as a rising fashion star, shooting for Vogue and, by 1989, the edgy campaigns for Guess that made Claudia Schiffer a household name – an ad campaign that von Unwerth continues photographing to this day.
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR September 2011 Fashion Editor Photographer Ellen von Unwerth
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Magical Mystery Tour
Fashion world Ellen von Unwerth: style, elegant, evocative & erotic
The City? E- Von Unwerth has also ventured into directing short films for Azzedine Alaïa and Katherine Hamnett, music videos for artists such as Duran Duran and commercials for Baccardi and Clinique. Of the fashion world? E- Ubiquitous, bold, and imaginative, her work features the faces and bodies of today’s top models and celebrities, and gives her famous male counterparts, such as Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh, a run for their money. What makes a von Unwerth photo? Sex, fun, sex, daring, sex, theater, and yes, more sex.” - Te Neues, publisher of Spezial Fotografie Portfolio #28). The key is letting the models move. “When I was a model, most photographers liked to keep me in one
position and I found that frustrating,” explains von Unwerth. “So I give the people I shoot as much freedom as possible to be spontaneous.” Hence, a favorite moment from a recent Vogue shoot in Mexico. “Naomi Campbell pricked her leg on a cactus, so she lifted her long dress really high in order to scratch it,” von Unwerth says. “I snapped the picture and I think it’s a very real moment, but I’m absolutely sure that vogue won’t use that shot because her dress is wrinkled.” Such as Bananarama’s Pop Life, Cathy Dennis’ Am I the Kinda Girl? E- Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997), British R&B group All Saints’ Saints & Sinners (2000), singer-songwriter Dido’s Life for Rent (2003), Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout (2007), Christina Aguilera’s 2006
album Back To Basics and her 2008 greatest hits album Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits and R&B singer Rihanna’s Rated R and Talk That Talk. Von Unwerth has also directed short films for fashion designers, and music videos for several pop musicians. Specializing in erotic femininity? E- She worked as a fashion model for ten years herself before moving behind the camera, and now makes fashion, editorial, and advertising photographs. Ellen von Unwerth found fame when she first photographed Claudia Schiffer. Her work has been published in top magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair. Interview? E- The Face, Arena, Twill, L’Uomo Vogue and I-D, and she has published several books of photography.
Magical Mystery Tour
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Fashion and beauty photographer from Sidney, Australia.
Posted by Melissa Fox / July 14, 2011 Features / Photography J- Finding cool stuff online is like making rapid fire but unrelated connections in your brain – one second you’re thinking about puppies and the next you’re contemplating life on Mars. How does it happen? Random. But interesting. Stream of conscious. Starting out with lord only knows what at this point, I skipped across photographer Jason Ierace‘s work when someone suggested his piece “Anna” is a brilliant example of how not to fuck up a fashion video. The Aussie photog (who studied photography at UWS in Sydney) has been shooting since the early 90s, but walked away for a few years to concentrate on graphic design and creative direction. About six years ago he decided to get back into the game full time, and, while his graphic/creative work is probably stellar, we can all be thankful that he decided to get back behind the lens.
Why does he shoot? J- I love the mixture of the technical aspects of photography and the creative aspects, he says. I love toys and gadgets and making beautiful images with them. Photography is ever changing and there’s a lot of great stuff out there, so I just do what I do for now and move on to something else next. You can’t be too precious about it. You’re basically a gun for hire most of the time, as Helmut Newton once said. Equipment? J- Mostly Canon kit, but I love shooting on different Polaroid cameras that I have collected, Hasselblad gear and I am LOVING my new Fuji X100 right now. Favourite thing to shoot? Beautiful girls in beautiful locations… How do you prepare for a shoot? I guess I just flick thru books and magazines, trawl the internet and get inspiration.
More of Jason’s work is available on his webpage.
Jason Ierace caught our eye with his smoking hot portraits and stunning editorial shoots.
More of Jason’s work is available on his webpage.
What are you listening to on set? J- Ha.. I try not to put my iPod on shuffle on a shoot, that’s for sure. I think it would scare everyone. It depends on the shoot and the people, but mostly I put on upbeat, fairly inoffensive tunes that that everyone likes to listen too.. I’m not a music snob. When you’re not behind the lens, what are you getting into? J- I pretty much spend my time surfing. Checking the surf, playing with and trying knew boards, hunting for surf. Travelling up and down the east coast of Australia looking for waves. I live in Sydney’s northern beaches and it gets pretty crowded. It does my head in sometimes, so I need to travel out of Sydney for a bit of sanity. Worst shoot experience? J- Usually its dealing with the weather, but I guess my worst experience was shooting a bunch of celebrities for a magazine, and my laptop died. Luckily it was only the display so managed to salvage everything and get a new laptop by the end of lunchtime, so we continued… a little nerve racking tho. Favourite shoot experience? J- When you get a great model in a great location and everything goes smoothly and you get some great pics. I shot this girl down the south coast of Australia. It was for Quiksilver and they only really needed 1 shot. We shot for a few hours, the light was great, the beach was amazing and the model was insane… so perfect. Who inspires you? J- I’m really inspired by many people. There are so many great photographers around at the moment and it’s my peers that really
push me. I’m really inspired personally by a lot of stuff that came out of the ’60s and ’70s.. I would have loved to be at my peak in those times. I like the simplicity and elegance of everything back then. People like Sam Haskins really inspire me as it was the ’60s and ’70s when he really made a name for himself. I had the pleasure of assisting him a few years back .. quite a few times… he was amazing. Shooting fashion for Harpers Bazaar at 80 years old. A legend in my eyes. It was sad to hear of his passing not so long ago. What makes a perfect picture? J- There are so many things, but a perfect picture to me is something that when you look at it, it creates an emotion or creates a story from that one image. If you could shoot anyone/thing, what would it be? J- There are sooo many people I would love to shoot, from celebrities to some of the super models from the ’80s . My list is extensive, I cant just name one… What projects are you working on right now? J- I have lots of little things going on now… but I’m still just playing, experimenting and having some fun with it all.. after all, you cant take this industry and yourself too seriously… look what we do for a living… its pretty fun. If your images could talk they’d say… wow that was fun making this shot, lets do it again. ha. In five years I’ll be… 5 years older and 5 years wiser… I feel like I’m still learning every day!
Get your weekend started right with our collection of favorite images after the jump.
Ha. In five years I’ll be… 5 years older and 5 years wiser… I feel like I’m still learning every day…