Spotlight on Steven Klein’s Work

The Observer published an interesting article on the works of Photographer Steven Klein. Here are the parts mentioning Madonna.

From Brad Pitt to Madonna, the characters we recognise on the international celebrity stage have been created, in part at least, by the way they have been depicted by Steven Klein. His photographs, says Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, are ‘clever, conceptual and ultimately lyrical’.

Susan Bright, who curated the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Face of Fashion’ exhibition earlier this year and selected several of Klein’s shots, explains that a large part of his skill lies in the way he captures men. ‘A lot of fashion photographers are very good with women but don’t seem to create the fantasy as well with men. Actually, I think Steven is much better with men than women. There is a very violent and sexual undertone.’

In the fashion world’s notoriously precious surroundings, he is a happy and enthusiastic collaborator, while the results of his art make the people he photographs look like they have been exposed, so that we feel we have seen more of them than ever before. ‘He understands that celebrity is a mask you put on,’ says Bright. ‘And he strips it away.’

And yet, all this happens with his subjects’ express approval and, indeed, a good deal of their input. When he works with Madonna, one of his regular subjects – for whom he now produces video backdrops for stage shows – they bat ideas between them until they have come up with an entire storyboard to explain the composition of the photographs.

‘His collaboration is all about confidence building, so that by the time it comes to taking the picture, everyone knows exactly what is going to happen. It makes people feel comfortable,’ says Bright.
Whereas many of Klein’s contemporaries, such as Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz, set out to make their sitters appear glossy, and others like David LaChapelle verge on camp, Klein’s pictures strive for something he’d describe as more edgy.

There’s certainly a lot of tensed muscle. There was Madonna in an electric chair for Zoo magazine, and Brad Pitt in a straitjacket for L’Uomo Vogue. There was Freddie Ljungberg in Calvin Klein briefs, advertising the brand against a backdrop of subtle but gritty graffiti.

From an article by Oliver Marre/The Observer.