Who’s Who: Legendary Fashion Photographers of the 20th Century

Today, August 19, is World Photography Day. On this occasion, we decided to tell you about the legendary fashion photographers. They shot the best covers of world publications, famous models who dreamed of posing for themselves, and their work has forever gone down in history. Here are eight names to remember.

Peter Lindberg

German photographer whose name is associated with 90’s fashion, Vogue and Pirelli calendar. Her career in the fashion industry began in 1988 when she shot the cover of American Vogue (which, by the way, was the first issue of this magazine under Anna Wintour).

Another merit of Peter Lindbergh is a radical change in the aesthetics of the Pirelli calendar (before that, the calendar was associated with images of half-naked models). The photographer offered to shoot not only models, but also Hollywood actresses. Meanwhile, Lindbergh is the only one to hit Pirelli three times.

In 1990, the legendary Vogue cover appeared with the main models of that period. Of course they were Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Tatjana Patitz. The author of the famous cover was Peter Lindbergh.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is the only female photographer on this list. She has photographed for The Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Time, Interview, The New York Times and other top magazines. Beginning in the 1970s, he photographed the main stars of the music scene: he toured with Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones. For this, he was nicknamed the rock and roll photographer.

Hollywood’s top models and actresses posed for Leibovitz, the biggest fashion houses, including Christian Dior or Louis Vuitton, collaborated with him. By the way, she was the one who shot the cover of Rolling Stone with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Mario Testino

Peruvian photographer, one of whose main achievements is the cult of grunge and heroin chic aesthetics. By the way, it was she who opened one of the highest paid models – Gisele Bündchen. In the 90s, she began to actively cooperate with fashion houses and shoot advertising campaigns for them.

Gianni Versace and Tom Ford approached him personally. And the legendary photo shoot of Princess Diana was her work.

By the way, they say that Mario Testino is Lady Dee’s favorite photographer.

Helmut Newton

One of the most provocative and daring photographers of all time. He’s been called the king of the fold, and his black-and-white Le Smoke (where the model poses with a cigarette in a Yves Saint Laurent suit) has become one of the most recognizable in the world. In 1957, Newton signed a contract with the British Vogue magazine, after which he shot for Harper’s Bazaar and other world publications.

Hairpins, stockings and even BDSM paraphernalia are indispensable elements of almost all of her works. Thanks to him, the concept of “Sex sells” (“Sex for Sale”) gained popularity.

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon is a portrait genius. He skillfully combined naturalism and grotesque in his works. Avedon has reinvented black and white photographs in which he so clearly conveys emotions, character and inner beauty. For the portrait, he mostly used a white background to draw all the attention to the models’ faces. He collaborated with Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar for a long time.

And the famous photograph of model Dovima posing in Yves Saint Laurent’s dress among African elephants has entered the world photographic history forever. Over the years, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and Andy Warhol have posed for her.

David Bailey

A true legend in British photography, known for capturing the spirit of the 60s. Then David was almost the most wanted person in Western Europe.

He shot all the main stars of that time: from Jean Shrimpton and Catherine Deneuve (who, by the way, was his wife) to Mick Jagger and John Lennon.

bruce weber

Bruce Weber has contributed greatly to fashion photography. At first, she only photographed male models (many scolded her), and only years later women started posing for her.

His first works appeared for GQ magazine in the late 70s. He has photographed for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview and Rolling Stone. American Photographer magazine also included one of his works among the top ten photographs that changed America.

Irving Penn

One of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He shot the first cover of Vogue in 1943 and collaborated with the magazine throughout his life. In total, during his career there were already 165 of them.

He has photographed John Dewey, Alfred Hitchcock, Al Pacino, Martha Graham, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Audrey Hepburn. They say that for every photo shoot they think about the script and that all the models are role-playing actors.