Steven Meisel

One of Steven Meisel’s first jobs was to work for fashion designer Halston as an illustrator, also sharing admiration for photographers like Jerry Schatzberg, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Bert Stern.
Later on, while working at Women’s Wear Daily as an illustrator, he went to Elite Model Management where two girls working there allowed him take pictures of some of their models.
Some of these models took their pictures to Seventeen magazine to show their model books and the people at Seventeen subsequently called Meisel and asked if he wanted to work with them.

Fashion campaigns

Amongst others, Meisel has shot campaigns for Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein (for whom his campaigns were very controversial). Meisel also shoots Prada campaigns each season — having done so since 2004. In April 2008 he shot friend Madonna for Vanity Fair, and later in the year he shot her for the 2009 spring campaign by Louis Vuitton at Splashlight’s Skylight Studio.

Fashion campaigns

Madonna Shootings

Meisel has contributed photos for the covers of several popular albums and singles, including two RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Madonna’s 1984 album “Like a Virgin”. His work also can be seen on the cover of Madonna’s single “Bad Girl” (a nude), the limited picture disc for Madonna’s UK single release of “Fever” (a partial nude). He shot photos of Madonna for her greatest hits album GHV2.

Vogue Italia with Eva Mendes

More than anything, one senses that he misses the time when he was closer in age to his subjects. “What am I going to talk about with a teenage Russian girl who barely speaks English?” he complains one day. It occurs to me that perhaps Meisel doesn’t like to be interviewed because it’s hard for him to dredge up the past. “I definitely don’t live in the past,” he says. “I definitely live in the present. I know people probably think of me as just living in the past. I do like certain periods in fashion. But I don’t live in the past at all. I’m very much now and tomorrow. But when I go through old pictures, yes, I cry. It’s not a sad cry. It’s a melancholy one, but mixed with happiness, too.”

Meisel Interview

Stylist: Andrew Richardson
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Hair: Guido
Set Design: Mary Howard

Vanity Fair with Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet channels her inner Catherine Deneuve for Vanity Fair’s December issue. She posed for Steven Meisel’s camera absolutely nude and the result is Belle Deneuve Jour.

A spokeswomen for Vanity Fair told The Daily Mail, “Although there were both real and fake furs on set, the fur used in the photograph is real. We thought Miss Winslet was aware of this and we’re sorry for the miscommunication.” Kate is anti-fur and told PETA that she never wears the animal fabric. Stylists really need to learn to be more sensitive to this subject area. Earlier this year a stylist teamed Stella McCartney lingerie with a Hockley fur jacket.
vanityfair