Steven Meisel A Women Lover

Hello dear readers,
yesterday I was looking for some great new images for my and came across really cool ads by Juicy Couture.

When trying to find the credits for some of those ads, I found out that the following ad had been shot by Steve Meisel:

Born in 1954 Steven Meisel started out as a fashion illustrator. He studied at the High School of Art and Design and then continued to study at Parsons The New School of Design. At a very young age Meisel would not play with toys but would use fashion magazines like Vogue or Harpers Bazaar to draw women.  According to Wikipedia he was deeply fascinated by rich and beautiful women like Gloria Guinness, who in his eyes personified beauty and high society. He was equally fascinated by his sister and mother and finally had a deep obsession for models like Twiggy, Veruschka and Jean Simpton.

He asked girlfriends to call model agencies pretending to be secretaries of Richard Avedon so he could get pictures of the models. He even waited for Twiggy outside a photographer’s studio, and stalked models outside the agencies to catch photographs of them.

To start off his career he worked for fashion designer Halston as a fashion illustrator, and taught fashion illustration as a part time job at Parsons. He then never thought of becoming a photographer. He later worked for Women Wear Daily and contacted Elite Model Agency where he was allowed to take pictures of the models. So he worked weekdays as an illustrator and on the weekends as a photographer. Some of the models took their pictures to Seventeen magazine. This is how he got his first job as a professional photographer.

He has shot every cover of Vogue Italia for the last 25 years. There are very few interviews in which he directly speaks to the media and he hates photographs being made of him even though he looks extremely beautiful with his long dark hair. He is said to be overtly homosexual.

One of the rare interviews was with Pierre Alexandre de Looz for 032c.com, click here to read it. One of the quotes from this interview: “During our conversations, Meisel confided that unlike many of his peers today he doesn’t constantly carry a camera. “When I think about it, am I really a fashion photographer?” The answer to that seems easy enough, unless of course you are Steven Meisel.”

I wish you all a really pleasant day

Image credits:
First image – Eliza Cummings, Hanne Gaby Odiele & Daria Strokous by Steven Meisel
Second image – Daria Strokous (Women) and Hanne Gaby Odiele (Ford) are back for the campaign lensed by Steven Meisel and now they have additional player, Viktoriya Sasonkina also at Women. The campaign was shot on November 15th 2010 and styled by the famous Lori Goldstein. Those blonde hair was by Orlando Pita and the make up was by Pat McGrath.
Third image – Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images, TIME Lists

This post is also available in: German