MUMBAI: CNN will reveal the work of one of fashion’s most sought-after snappers, Mario Testino. He the channel says has never allowed television cameras to witness his photographic sessions – until now. On its show Revealed which airs on 10 Febraury 2007 at 6 pm, 11 February at 2 pm, 8 pm and on 12 February at 8 pm viewers meet the man who has photographed many of the world’s most iconic images.
Testino has captured personalities including Princess Diana for her famous Vanity Fair cover in 1997, Madonna for designer label Versace, as well as playing a pivotal role in the careers of supermodels Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen. His work is seen worldwide in fashion magazines, at international exhibitions, on the walls of art galleries and in a number of books.
The show offers viewers the opportunity to follow Testino at work, during the life-span of a high-profile campaign for Versace Spring 2007. It begins as models line up for a casting session with the top photographer in Paris, before he heads for a brainstorm with his Art Director and friend of twenty years, Patrick Kinmouth. The two men review their previous campaigns for Versace, which include Halle Berry, Demi Moore and Madonna, and consider whether to use models or celebrities in their latest project.
The fashion spotlight next moves to Italy, for Milan Fashion week, where Testino visits Versace’s head office for a meeting with Donatella Versace, who tells Revealed that her choice of photographer is crucial to her success as a designer, “To me at the moment, Mario Testino is the only photographer with a sense of modernity and a sense of creativity combined with a knowledge of the market of fashion, which no one else has.”
Attending Versace’s packed catwalk show, one of the centrepieces of Milan Fashion week, Testino finds himself amongst pop legend Prince, and with fashion royalty, present in the form of Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue. She tells REVEALED, “Mario is one of the very few photographers that we look on as a voice of the magazine photographer. He has such an extraordinary spirit, such a positive energy. The celebrities adore working with him, he loves fashion.”
New York is the next stop, where the Versace fashion shoot takes place, with supermodels Kate Moss – Testino’s favourite model is straight off the red-eye plane from London to attend – and Carmen Kass, Caroline Murphy and Angela Lindvall. Revealed witnesses Testino at work as he coaxes the poses he needs from his supermodel cast, as he explains that models come into the studio with what they have, and, unless a photographer brings something additional out of the session, it remains the model’s photograph, not the photographer’s.
