Mario Testino can get actor Orlando Bloom to kiss David Beckham at a party. Or convince another big Hollywood star, Josh Hartnett, to put on red lipstick and lashes. In his ongoing #Towel Series on Instagram, he has everyone from supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to pop star Justin Bieber stripping down to their bath towels. The last is guaranteed to whip his 2.8 million followers on Instagram into a frenzy each time, and says a lot about the direction Testino is taking as arguably the world’s most famous fashion photographer today.
Return to India
In the 40 years since he moved from Lima, Peru to London, Testino has worked with the who's who in fashion, cinema and music. The 1995 Versace campaign with Madonna and his photographs of Princess Diana made him a household name, and continued work with Vogue magazine sees him guest editing special issues across the world. It is his 12th such edition, this time with Vogue India , that brought him to New Delhi a few weeks ago, when he was whisked off to secret locations in Jaipur and Goa on photo assignments. Barring details like Instagram darling Kendall Jenner and actor Sushant Singh Rajput being part of the project, everything has been kept under wraps. What is anticipated from the May 2017 issue, however, is Testino's trademark visual imagery as he employs illusion and fantasy to talk fashion and consumerism.
Business of fashion
Testino is unapologetic about the association of art and commerce, and his ability to create the ‘desire to buy’ with his photographs. He has learnt well from the experts, be it on advertising from designer Tom Ford or on composition from stylist Paul Cavaco. Fashion editors laud his ability to think like them, with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour famously referring to his “business brain”. He explores themes like masculinity and sensuality in the book , SIR, featuring icons like David Bowie and Brad Pitt. Always on the move and working 14-hour days, Testino still finds time to promote Peruvian culture and bring foreign artists to his homeland through The Mario Testino Museum (MATE) in Lima. Recalling his early years in his hometown, when he dressed differently, considered himself an outsider, and longed to get away, Testino is now happy to rediscover his roots.
The digital journey
From reluctantly toying with Facebook a few years ago to orchestrating a 48-hour hackathon with Stanford University students in Palo Alto, California, in September 2016, the photographer has come a long way. At the hackathon, his audience was asked to visualise the next frontier of visual communications. A few days later, he launched Miramira.tv, a content platform that showcases unpublished photographs, behind the scenes footage from the Towel Series, a podcast with his friend, Kate Moss, and more. It is engineered by his team of about 40 at Mario Testino +, a company that is involved in creative and art direction, video and photography, graphic design and trend forecasting. “This freedom is completely new to me and I find it quite exciting because it’s the first time I get to communicate with my viewers or my readers directly,” says Testino, 62, quick to appreciate the power of getting 20,000 reactions in 20 minutes to his Instagram posts. After years of working with leading magazines, not having to follow a brief from an editor, and being his own boss is liberating, he says. Excerpts from our interview:
How do you walk the fine line between artist and strategist?
We are in the business of fashion photography, so we create images that make people want to go and buy that dress, that handbag, those sunglasses. But we have to create memorable images that linger in your mind, iconic images. It is difficult to walk the tightrope, but I try to remind myself every day that people are sophisticated and often want to be surprised.
In an interview with The Telegraph , you admitted that you try to “break the ice by playing the fool.’’ Does it work all the time?
It is very exhausting but it is a must and you cannot expect people to give you something if you haven’t really put in the energy into the image yourself first.
Your initial years as a fashion photographer weren’t easy. You moved to London in search of tolerance, dyed your hair pink, waited tables.
I was different, and in Peru not everybody accepted this. I think that it’s very difficult to be anybody else but who you are, and I went to London in search of that sense of self. Which brought me photography and my career. Regarding tolerance globally, if the world were more tolerant, people would have a lot less problems.
