Do you recognize and know about famous fashion photographers who are behind the shoots of collections, campaigns, and magazines you see and read probably daily? Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz…these names must ring a bell, but one may not be familiar with their career and what they are most famous for. Today, we invite you to learn a bit more about fashion photography and discover some of the greatest names in history.
Famous Fashion Photographers You Need To Know
Edward Steichen (1879 – 1973)
Edward Steichen is considered one of the pioneers of fashion photography – a key member of the Pictorialist movement and the Photo-Secession in the early 1900s, but also a Modernist. He served as chief photographer for Condé Nast from 1923 to 1938 while also working as a freelance photographer. The first color cover of Vogue that you see above was photographed by Edward Steichen, which was a groundbreaking moment in the history of the magazine, making it one of his most famous works.
Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980)
Cecil Beaton launched his career as one of society and fashion photographers in 1926 with a solo exhibition in London that won him an immediate contract with Vogue, where he worked for the next 30 years. Perhaps he is most famous for photographing the late Queen Elizabeth on many occasions. Many of her shots were featured in British Vogue, such as the one above from 1950 with her son Charles. Cecil’s passion for high-society portraits led him to form connections with celebrities. This connection includes Coco Chanel, Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and artists such as Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.
Horst P. Horst (1906 – 1999)
He was a German-American fashion photographer known as the pioneer of the genre now known as classic fashion photography. In the 1930s, he photographed for the French and British editions of Vogue. On the eve of World War II, Horst P. Horst shot one of his famous works “Mainbocher Corset” at Vogue Studios in Paris in 1939. Then, he emigrated the next morning to the United States. He found work at American Vogue, where he would stay for the rest of his life.
Lee Miller
Lee Miller (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977) was a Surrealist artist and a model. She is one of the 20th century’s most important fashion photographers and war correspondents. She started to work at American Vogue in 1927. However, her first major break happened when she was hired by British Vogue and became an accredited U.S. Army war correspondent for Condé Nast Publications in 1942.
Lee Miller brought first-hand war coverage, reporting on daily life, women who were contributing to the war effort, and of course the atrocities taking place. For example, she photographed Nazi concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald after they were liberated in 1945. “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE!” were the words she wrote in a telegram to Audrey Withers, then-editor-in-chief of British Vogue, adding “I hope Vogue will feel that it can publish these pictures.”
The magazine did publish them. The American edition also shared Miller’s photos in the June 1945 issue, along with a direct message: “Believe It.” The evidence shared by the brave war correspondent not only played a significant role in raising awareness about the reality of the war. Also, it extended Vogue’s coverage. It went from having glossy pages filled with fashion to also serving as a news source about the war and making a place for photojournalism.
Norman Parkinson (1913 – 1990)
Norman Parkinson was a celebrated British portrait and fashion photographer of the 20th century. He worked for a wide range of publications. Notably, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, and other international magazines, brought him worldwide recognition. What’s interesting about Norman Parkinson is that he stood out from his contemporaries by inventing the supermodel age. He makes photos look less formal, more fun, and casual with a note of humor. He enjoyed shooting outdoors, at a time when most of the photoshoots happened indoors at studios. Parkinson went to exotic locations like Russia, India, The Caribbean… The one you see above is a good example of Parkinson’s photography style.
Irving Penn (1917-2009)
Irving Penn was one of the most important fashion and editorial photographers. He is best known as a still-life and portrait photographer. For over 60 years, his images graced the covers of the most prominent magazines. The magazines include Vogue where he stayed from 1943 to 2009, creating 165 covers. It’s hard to choose only one iconic photograph of Irving Penn. However, this one with Jean Patchett he made for the cover of Vogue in April 1950 is truly memorable. This was his first non-color Vogue cover published since May 1932.
Helmut Newton (1920 – 2004)
Helmut Newton was a famous German-Australian fashion photographer. Settling in Paris in the 1950s, he began working for French Vogue, and later Playboy, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and other major publications that put him on the map as one of the greatest fashion photographers. As his reputation grew, he began traveling frequently for assignments around the world.
Helmut Newton is famous for pushing the boundaries of fashion photography and challenging societal norms. He can be recognized by his black-and-white photos. These are known for being erotically charged and featuring women in powerful poses. For this, Newton’s work is both celebrated and controversial. His works question the representation of women in media and the fine line between art and pornography. If we had to select one landmark moment in Newton’s career, it would be the photograph above featuring Le Smoking by Yves Saint Laurent.
Richard Avedon (1932 – 2004)
Richard Avedon is mostly credited for erasing the gap between fashion and fine art, art and politics, and art and commercial photography. His photography career began during World War II. He served in the US Merchant Marine, photographing sailors for identification portraits. In 1944, he attended the New School of Social Research to study under Harper’s Bazaar’s art director, Alexey Brodovitch. Shortly after, he became a staff photographer at the magazine where he stayed for around 20 years. He then moved to Vogue in the 60s, where he remained for almost 25 years. In 1992, Avedon became the first staff photographer at The New Yorker. He also worked for Life, Look, Egoïste, and other popular magazines, as well as legendary fashion houses.
Richard Avedon photographed countless iconic fashion models and celebrities (Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, The Beatles, Andy Warhol…) He also photographed political figures, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, President Eisenhower, and Hillary Clinton. Avedon also documented major events like the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.
Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991)
Guy Bourdin was a French fashion photographer best known for his highly experimental and provocative fashion photography. Also, he predominantly worked in color. His career spanned more than 40 years during which he worked for the world’s leading fashion houses and magazines. Discovered by French Vogue at the beginning of the 1950s, he remained at the magazine until the end of the 1980s.
Bruce Weber (1946 – present)
Bruce Weber moved to New York in 1966 to study at the NYU Film School. He worked as a model to fund his studies. He befriended many photographers and stepped into the world of photography towards the end of the 1970s – beginning of the 1980s. Since then, Bruce Weber developed a long-standing relationship with Vogue and traveled the world to take shots for the magazine. In addition, he is famous for creating ad campaigns for popular brands like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Versace.
Patrick Demarchelier (1943-2022)
Patrick Demarchelier was a French fashion photographer. He worked for Vogue for many years, since 1975. His first cover credit came in 1977. It is, perhaps, one of his most memorable ones was for May 1989, featuring Madonna. Demarchelier is also famous for being the personal portraitist of Princess Diana. She gained international recognition with this portrait shot for Vogue in 1990.
Peter Lindbergh (1944-2019)
Did you know that Peter Lindbergh is the photographer behind the iconic supermodel photographs in their early years of fame? Peter Lindbergh is indeed the one who first sparked the supermodel phenomenon with a shot of models in white shirts that appeared in American Vogue in August 1988. He is also behind the lens of the January 1990 British Vogue cover. Lindbergh shot then relatively unknown Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and the late Tatiana Patitz, known as “the original supermodels”. They were discovered individually by different photographers, however, it’s Peter Lindbergh who is credited for putting them on the map as a group of supermodels.
Paolo Roversi (1947 – present)
Paolo Roversi is an Italian photographer. Upon moving to Paris in 1973, he worked for the most prestigious magazines, including Vogue France, Vogue Italia, Egoïste, and Luncheon. In addition, he has collaborated with famous fashion designers, most notably Yohji Yamamoto, Romeo Gigli, and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons.
Paolo Roversi is particularly known for his portraits. “His muses aren’t passive, idealistic subjects of his eye. They actively participate in creating the image. His gaze doesn’t impose, but reveals,” said Vogue’s photo editor Chiara Bardelli Nonino on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to Paolo Roversi in his hometown Ravenna, Italy, in 2020.
Annie Leibovitz (1949 – present)
Annie Leibovitz is an American photographer, primarily known as a portraitist She is known for her celebrity portraits of John Lennon, Bob Marley, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few. A respected name in the industry, Annie Leibovitz has also photographed several iconic Vogue covers through the years. If we had to choose a recent iconic photoshoot, it would be this quite recent one for American Vogue’s May 2023 issue, in which 10 designers paid tribute to Karl Lagerfeld by creating looks inspired by the legendary late fashion designer.
Steven Meisel (1954 – present )
Steven Meisel was discovered by Oscar Reyes, a booker for Elite Model Management. The latter was impressed with Meisel’s photographs he was taking for the models to use in their portfolio for Seventeen Magazine casting, and subsequently hired him. From that moment, Steven Meisel’s photography career skyrocketed and he began collaborating with notorious magazines including Vogue. Meisel has shot numerous covers and editorials for various international editions of Vogue, playing a crucial role in pushing the magazine’s boundaries with cutting-edge fashion photography. His collaboration with Vogue U.S. and Vogue Italia is particularly noteworthy. One of the famous works he produced for the Italian edition was these covers shot for the 2008 “All Black” issue. To this day, Linda Evangelista is among the models he took the most pictures of.
Mario Testino (1954 – present)
Mario Testino is a Peruvian photographer, known for his celebrity portraits (The British Royal Family, Madonna…) and shooting campaigns for Burberry, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, and Versace. One of his famous works is the “Towel Series”, which began around 2014 when he saw Kate Moss – one of his favorite muses – wrapped in a white robe and a towel on the set of a shoot, and it inspired him to shoot more portraits like this of celebrities and supermodels. While not exclusive to Vogue, some of these images have been featured in the magazine.
Steven Klein (1965 – present)
Steven Klein has worked with many famous Vogue editors over the years, including Grace Coddington, Camilla Nickerson, and Tonne Goodman. The story besides this image he shot for Vogue about the fear of aging is very interesting. “We’d set everything up at a modern house upstate, but I didn’t like the way their [models’] faces looked in the camera or the way the make-up had been originally done on their faces, which is quite difficult. These [prosthetic people] are made of components, so I pulled the faces off and I just thought that they looked more interesting,” he shared with the magazine. He wasn’t sure whether Anna Wintour would accept this picture, and in fact, she loved it.
Mario Sorrenti (1971 – present)
Mario Sorrenti is one of the most famous contemporary American-Italian fashion photographers. His career took off when he released pictures of his then-girlfriend Kate Moss for the Calvin Klein iconic “Obsession” campaign from 1993 which they shot together in the British Virgin Islands. Sorrenti has collaborated for Vanity Fair, Vogue Hommes, and the French, Italian, and Japanese editions of Vogue, among other publications. His clients also include Chanel (see the recent Bleu de Chanel campaign with Timothée Chalamet,) Max Mara, Kenzo, and Hugo Boss.
We hope that this article about famous Vogue fashion photographers has helped you recognize the different photography styles more easily and that you learned more about the artists who are behind the lens of your favorite editorials and covers. To complement your knowledge of fashion photography, you can also read our article about 18 iconic photoshoots in fashion.
Who is your favorite fashion photographer?
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