“Before I even grab my camera, there must always be a real exchange between me and the person in front of the camera. That’s when something can happen. And that’s what you photograph, rather than the person themselves.” It is with these words that Peter Lindbergh described his relationship to the models during an interview for Vogue Paris in 2016.
Peter Lindbergh behind the scenes with Charlize Theron for Dior. (Image credit: IMDb)
A fan of ageless glamour and blushless modernity, this legend of photography passed away on September 3, 2019, at the age of 74. Between mythical fashion series for Vogue and portraits of women, Peter Lindbergh has redrawn the contours of beauty by creating photographic series of rare realism, inspired by documentary photography and photojournalism, where the model often appears without make-up, as if delivered naked to the lens.
Launching the supermodel era
His most famous photos remain those of supermodels, which he has made a myth out of thanks to his black and white series. It was in 1988 that Lindbergh created a series of portraits of new models together on a beach in Malibu, all dressed in white shirts and in a natural look. At the time, big-makeup, big-hair studio shoots were rather in trend.
Models together on a beach in Malibu. Courtesy of Peter Lindbergh.
The shoot had been commissioned by British Vogue magazine, but the clean look of the photos didn’t satisfy the editor at the time, and the pictures were tossed.
It was Anna Wintour, who became editor of the magazine a few months later, who rediscovered the shots and hired Lindbergh for her first cover, the January 1990 issue. The models it featured would become some of the biggest names in the industry: Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington.
Inspired others
Pop singer George Michael was then inspired by Lindbergh’s shots and invited the same models to feature in the video for his song “Freedom! ’90.” Gianni Versace also had the models present his new collections on the catwalk, anchoring the era of celebrity supermodels.
“I never had the idea that this was history,” Lindbergh told British newspaper The Guardian in 2016. “Never for one second … I didn’t do anything, a bit of light. It came together very naturally, effortless; you never felt you were changing the world. It was all intuition.”
A fashion icon. Even if you have not heard of Peter Lindbergh, you know his work well. He is credited with creating a new age in fashion photography after shooting five young models for British “Vogue,” essentially launching the era of the supermodel with the pictures capturing Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington in downtown New York.
Film inspires fashion. In his signature black-and-white shots, Lindbergh introduced a new realism into photography when he began to be noticed in the late 1970s and early 80s. He frequently turned to film for inspiring backdrops and played on the prototype of the strong, self-willed woman which helped redefine the beauty norms written by the fashion industry.
A responsibility ‘to free women’. Lindbergh took his position in society very seriously, saying in 2014 that his role as a fashion photographer is to “reflect a certain social or human reality.” In a later interview, he clarified by saying, “This should be the responsibility of photographers today: to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection.” Pictured is Milla Jovovich during a 2012 Chanel shoot.
Photography that captures humanity, warts and all.
Not a fan of Photoshop, Lindbergh is known for capturing the human face in all its imperfections. “How surrealistic is today’s commercial agenda to retouch all signs of life and of experience, to retouch the very personal truth of the face itself?” he told Isabel Flower in an interview published in “Art Forum.” Shown here: actress Julianne Moore in 2008.
‘A dangerous form of snobbery’. Lindbergh was perhaps best known for the images he created for fashion spreads in “Vogue” and advertising campaigns shot for luxury design houses including Chanel. Still, he didn’t differentiate between his commercial and non-commercial images, calling the distinction between “commissioned” and “fine art” photography a “dangerous form of snobbery.”
The book: ‘A Different Vision on Fashion Photography’. To accompany the exhibition, which traveled to museums in Munich and Torino after its run in Rotterdam, the German publisher Taschen compiled over 400 of Lindbergh’s photographs in a book of the same name. The text by curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot includes greater insight into the photographer’s biography and working process.
Capturing Lindbergh’s vision. Peter Lindbergh took this photo of Daft Punk in France in 2013. The Kunsthal Rotterdam held a retrospective of the German photographer’s work in 2016. The exhibition was envisioned as a narrative providing insight into his vision, using previously unseen material, including personal notes, storyboards, props, Polaroids, contact sheets, and films.
The responsibility of the fashion photographer.
“A fashion photographer should contribute to defining the image of the contemporary woman or man in their time, to reflect a certain social or human reality,” Peter Lindbergh once said in “Art Forum.” The influential German photographer has died at the age of 74 on September 3, 2019.
Tatjana is a natural born fashion killa. Mesmerised by the influential designers creative escapades, she's always waiting for the next big thing to hit the runway. When she's not lusting after an Oscar de la Renta dress, she's giving her undivided attention to Hermès bow ties and macarons from Ladurée.
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