My (one-way) relationship with Steven Meisel, my most favorite fashion photographer, began in my sophomore year of high school, when my art teacher assigned a photographer to each student. We were required to do some research on our subject, but more so, the assignment was to imitate the style of the artist. To my luck, I was given Steven Meisel (it was fate that brought us together!). I got right to it, I called up a friend of mine, Freda, and had her model for me. It wasn’t that simple. I finally saw the brainpower behind snapping the perfect cover shot. I won’t lie though, it was pretty fun. I was going for the whole “celebrity eating disorder” topic. I thought it was slightly controversial, but not too controversial that my teacher would be weirded out. Outfit-wise, I knew we were depicting a starlet. 2/3 pieces of her outfit belong/ed to my mother (I do not know where either are now). The dress, a sparkly BCBG frock from circa 2004. The shoes, Steve Madden, also from sometime around 2004. Last but not least, the silver leggings are mine, American Apparel. When it came time for makeup, I realized how much fun it is to make someone have a black eye by purpose. It was kind of like a “smoky eye” gone bad…very bad. We took red lipstick and just smudged it all over the lower half of her mouth. Then, we thought, what better place to shoot this than in my bathroom! As a finishing touch, we added a little plate of cake and cookies but mid-photoshoot, I took some cake and smushed it all over her face (can you say “let them eat cake!). Check out the photo below…
Call me a cheeseball, but my theory to photography (not like I’m good at it) was always that the talent in photography doesn’t lie in simply photographing something beautiful; it is photographing something ugly and making it beautiful. In the world of gorgeous models and expensive clothing that is a hard theory to live by as a photographer. But my pal Steve always makes it work. His images are not merely a picture of a 5 foot 10 beauty in a $10,000 dollar Balmain dress. They are crossing boundaries and going places every photographer wants to go, but is too scared to. By challenging social taboos, Meisel made ‘controversy’ his middle name. Meisel shoots for US and Italian Vogue, as well as designers such as Valentino, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Calvin Klein (almost everyone). Oh ya, and he’s like best friends with Madonna (jealous!!!). Enjoy.
"Make Love Not War"for Italian Vogue
Last but not least my rendition of Steven Meisel's work:
Sinceramente (Italian),
Eileen
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