today i had the distinguished honor of joining my fellow boston bloggettes on an early
press tour through the
boston MFA's latest exhibit-
mario testino: in your face,
and had the added privilege of participating in a lively question & answer
with the very candid, very talented & very humble
vogue photographer himself.
with every photograph hand-selected from his thirty-year ouvre and thoughtfully arranged
with testino's input, the exhibit is reminiscent of an endlessly amazing gallery wall,
with different-sized images perched side by side along a white rail in no particular order.
some of the photos are framed, some are simply pinned to the wall, and the rooms
are fairly dark so that you focus mostly on the images themselves, and lose yourself in
the lavish color and beautiful world of mario testino.
mario's celebrity clients range from kate moss to queen elizabeth, oprah to lady gaga,
madonna to natalia vodianova and every gorgeous individual in between. his commercial prints
and vogue work are hardly distinguishable from his more candid party pictures that
he has trained himself to take with a small handheld camera to capture
spontaneous moments of glamour.
the press conference took place between mario & mfa director, malcom rogers and allowed us
an up close and personal moment with a "master of color, light and movement..[a man who is] constantly experimenting and [always] revealing the hidden side" of the most well known
celebrities. during the q & a, we learned how testino became a household name after his
first collaboration with madonna and versace in 1995, how he trained his eye at
an early age by studying famous photogs like cecil beaton & richard avedon, yet decided
to forge his own path, taking pictures with his own signature panache rather than trying
to repeat what has already been done. we learned that he does not like to label himself
but thinks of himself mainly as a "do-er" and wants to always challenge himself and
his clients to see themselves in a different light and have the energy to do
something that is awe-inspiring.
of kate moss, he remarked "everything is more fun when she is around," and
"she is alot like perfume, a little goes a long way, rather than cologne which disappears
after an hour and you have to keep spraying on more." and of gisele, he said, "she has tremendous energy and is a true worker. she will not rest until a photograph is perfect and after reviewing
an image, she will say that she can do it better and will keep working until i get the shot.
her body is perfect, and after scanning the proofs, i hardly ever have to touch them up.
she is gifted." of the royal family, he says that prince charles is hilarious and
that princess diana had something special that he could not put his finger on.
in a coat room after her had already shot their formal engagement portraits and he could
see that they were so in love and told them, "stop right there" so he could
capture the very moment for all to see.
when asked by yours truly what his definition of beauty was and how he felt being one of
the highest contributors to our mainstream standard of beauty (malcom rogers noted that in 2010,
he shot 10 out of 12 vogue magazine covers!) he claimed, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
and that magazines are an"aspirational creation of beauty" and that "designers cut clothes
for a certain type of girl," which was sort of disappointing for a man of such vision.
lastly, he left us with the advice to be inquisitive and create a whole new world.
i liked that. and i LOVED his exhibit! watch the behind the scenes video below:
the mario testino exhibit at the boston mfa will run from october 21st- february 3, 2013.
do your fashion photography-loving self a favor and go see it ;)
