A Steven Klein image is typically a place with a dark, foreboding aura. Sometimes the mood of his photographs is so emotionally isolating that it can seem like he conducts all his shoots in airtight bunkers buried under a desert floor somewhere. The paradox of Klein’s status as a superstar photographer of superstars—he’s created risqué, iconic images of not just Pitt and Madonna but Justin Timberlake, Ethan Hawke, Naomi Campbell, and others—is that he’s successfully selling a darker version of celebrity at a particularly idiotic, giddy juncture in pop culture, just as US Weekly is flying off newsstands and the American Idol is topping the ratings.
Here is some images I found that I personally like. He’s shoot Madonna many times and every time the result is beautiful. I also liked his version of The Valley of the Dolls as well as the Men’s Vogue issue with magnificent images of Brad Pitt.
2 comments:
Hmmm....SK, yes great photographer. And I have yet to see a bad Madonna pic anywhere. I believe his work is dark and there is jolt to it. But for me it is blank after that. I think real art not only shocks, but it draws one in to another place and time. Kind of like an emotional attachment: That was me, or that could be me.
While the inital reaction is great there is much to be desired. The world needs emotion and needs to be sucked into the photograph. From the work I have seen by you, you do this. You could do this and better.
Just bein honest.
Thanks, Stacey! Well I do agree with you. A work of art, whatever it is a song, a movie, a photograph - anything - it should be filled with emotions and touch the person who is looking at it. Real art is not merely presenting something, it is an experience & transaction of the interpretation and ideas of the artists and the feelings and memories and desires of the observer. I am not a big fan of Steven Klein's photography in general. I do like the series he did with Madonna and his depiction of The Valley of the Doll is interesting. Some portraits he took of Brad Pitt are great. They best ones are not featured in this post though, they are in a magazine (somewhere in my apartment, haha). But I think mostly fashion photography is blank. Today it seems to tell much less than before. The images are colder and the models are doll like. There is not much emotion in that. I live from my emotions, I feel the extremes of my being and my states of mind, so maybe that translates to my work too. I am very passionate about all that I do. Like I've said it before, if I think I have something to contribute, I give my all. If I feel I do not have anything to give, I don't do it at all. I think it's the only way to be real and honest!
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