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Home , Carine Roitfeld, Donatella Versace, Gianni Versace, Mario Testino, Versace, Vittoria Ceretti

RETROSPECTIVE ‘WHEN I’M IN I FEEL AT HOME’ The influential and portrait photographer HonFRPS pays a personal homage to the land of his grandfather

WORDS: ALAIN ELKANN

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ou have an enduring saw that had given me fascination with Italy, some photos in Vogue in America and evidenced by your latest she gave me a story to do. She was book Ciao. Why? editor of Per Lui and Lei at the time, When I was a young guy and she started giving me work which I managed to get an took me to Milano often. Italian passport – my grandfather was born in Italy and was What kind of pictures were you taking? from Lavagna in the Liguria region. He The interesting thing about that time movedY to with his family, and my period was that all the modelling father was born in Peru and so was I. agencies had this particular style of guy, It is thanks to this Italian passport very American, but this did not reflect that I’ve had the career that I’ve had. my taste. Instead I looked on the streets As a Peruvian it was hard to travel of Milano and London for the people I freely through countries, and with the wanted. Doing that made me establish Italian passport I could travel anywhere my taste in who I would photograph. at the drop of a hat. When I started my career, jobs happened at the last Who were you influenced by? moment. I had to have some way of I was influenced by quite a few being able to go to or or photographers – Newton, Avedon, New York overnight, and an Italian . But I was terrible at passport allowed me to do that, even copying others. I always ended up though I had never lived there. going to my own essence.

Do you feel Italian beyond your passport? Which camera did you use? I do, and I relate to Italians very well. I I bought a Nikkormat in Amsterdam am completely Peruvian of course. But airport. As well as going to to I feel something of my past, and when buy clothes, I went to Amsterdam to I’m in Italy I feel at home everywhere. buy the camera, because they said you could go for a weekend and get a cheap camera at the airport when you left. I did all my pictures with that camera. ‘In the 90s I started recording the fashion scene and the streets in different cities I would go to‘ In Ciao, are there pictures of that time? The earliest is a bit later, in the 90s when I started working for ; then for ; then for Dolce & Even though London has been your Gabbana. In the beginning of the 90s I residence for 40 years? started recording the fashion scene and My mother’s side of the family had the streets in the different cities I would an Irish element, so I am a real mix. go to. I did a lot of work in Italy through In London I like the fantasy, but in the years, and it would be impossible to Italy I like the lifestyle. put everything I have done in one book. There were literally thousands of When did you go to Italy for the pictures up for inclusion in the book first time? and we had to choose only about 140. In 1977 I went as a tourist from London to spend my holidays visiting friends What did you want to show in this book? that had gone to study there. One was in It is a homage to Italy. I want to show all Rome and the other in Florence. My the things that I like in Italy, that make second time was a year later, and then it so wonderful. Italy has that feeling of I went to buy clothes, because when I family, which I have come to realise is first lived in London I had brought my the most important. It has amazing clothes from Peru and they were food and holiday destinations, and inadequate. I knew that in Italy you many different levels of society live could buy clothes cheaply and so I went together in the same place. to Rome again. I remember the Jackie O’ Club in Rome in the late seventies, What do you picture in the book? and in the early 80s I started going to There’s a lot about people. People’s Milano, before I met . behaviour in the street; the way they

PREVIOUS PAGES eat their ice cream; the way they do ‘Vittoria Ceretti, Franca Sozzani was to become editor of their expressions with their hands; Amalfi’, 2017 Vogue Italia for many years. How old the way they enjoy life; the way they were you when you met her? serve; how the waiters go walking LEFT ‘Simone Susinna, I was 27 and not yet at all successful, down the street taking espressos and Ischia’, 2018 but not long after that Franca Sozzani cappuccinos to the buildings around

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them; how people live in the summer; chosen himself to be photographed as how they can pack a boat with 100 the last photograph after his couture people to share that moment of joy; how show in July. He died soon after. they celebrate weddings everywhere you go; and how people hold arm in arm. Was this before you photographed There is a lot of friendship. Diana, Princess of Wales? The Diana pictures were shot in April Do you also feature monuments? and came out in August. She died at the Lots of monuments – they seem to be end of August. How weird that I did so important in the history of Italy. Diana’s last portrait and I did Gianni’s Many cities in Europe were bombed last sitting, and she’s wearing Versace in during the wars and lost a lot of the picture. The Italians have a certain monuments, but Italy still seems to generosity, because in my museum in have a lot of theirs. I’ve always been , Peru, I have a room dedicated to amazed by the Fontana di Trevi and the pictures of Princess Diana, and humongous monuments like that. when I asked if she Normally you need space to see them, could redo the dress for me she donated but there is only a little street that you the actual dress that Diana wore for the can see them from. They’re hidden, and cover of the Vanity Fair issue. they’re built without any possibility of going back to look at them from What is the third section about? a distance. The third part is called Al Mare, [and is] dedicated to the fact that Italy is the How did you give the book structure? most amazing holiday destination, the I decided to divide the book in three. best … beautiful sea, fabulous foods, The first section I call In Giro, which is lovely people and great limoncello. discovering Italy: the Palio di Siena, the houses in Tuscany, the canals of Venice, the streets of Milano and Naples, the island of Capri, the Aeolian Islands. ’The story goes Versace had asked to do The second part is Alla Moda, because through fashion I started meeting the campaign with Avedon, but she proposed me’ designers. Madonna introduced me to the Versaces. With I met when he was at Gucci. I have documented the sea from Through the perfume Light Blue I met Amalfi to Stromboli, from Isola dei Dolce & Gabbana, and it was the first Galli to Capri, from Palmarola to time I had done a TV commercial. Until Isole Eolie, to Ostia near Rome. then I had only done photographs. What is your favourite Italian place? How was ? I love Naples. It has the right mix of a He was the first one to give me a vivid art scene and it’s on the sea so you couture campaign. When I gave him the can go on a boat, or you can go on the pictures, he decided to dedicate a page seafront on the passeggiata. It has that said: ‘Versace presents Madonna amazing food: mozzarella! I did my first by Testino.’ I was surprised because exhibition there, and I even chose to do only the great are called by their the Pirelli calendar in Naples where surname. At the time they were they had never done it before. I love Avedon, Penn and Newton. the mixture of people that makes it so magical, and let’s not forget the history Are you still friends with Madonna? of Naples. I love Milano too because of Sure, I know her. I did a lot with her. the restaurants and people like Maria, I did her album and I the owner of La Latteria San Marco. did a cover of Vanity Fair with her Milano was my formation. first child, Lourdes. She has an amazing eye and is a In Milan did you and Franca Sozzani visionary. It was Madonna that asked eat at the Torre di Pisa restaurant? me to shoot the couture campaign for Yes. In my early years she trained me Versace. The story goes that they had how to run the business of fashion, asked her to do the campaign with how it worked and how to get what you Avedon, but something had not gone wanted. She would give me a budget of PREVIOUS PAGES well and she proposed me. I went on $2,000 and say if you want to use that ‘Palazzo Colonna, to work a lot with Gianni. I did the last money to bring a girl from New York Roma’, 2018 shoot that he did, which was a really that is your business, but make sure RIGHT uncanny photograph because it was you find all you need within that money. ‘Betty Bee’, 13 girls dressed all in black that he had It was a great way of training me. Napoli, 1997

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PREVIOUS PAGES RIGHT ‘Avola’, 2018 ‘Amalfi’, 2002

Who else trained you? Gucci and Versace taught me a lot, and companies like Missoni or Trussardi were also key for developing my multiple styles. Photographers usually have one style, but I realised I was excited by many different styles. I could do Versace one day, Cavalli the next, Gucci the next and Missoni the next. I was excited by tapping into different people’s DNA and defining it.

Is the fashion world over for you now? I’ve done it for 40 years and the world of fashion has changed drastically. Somebody said to me they went to the shows and didn’t know anybody. People have moved on. When I was in fashion a company needed six images for their campaign for the whole season. Now they need 100 images, because they have Instagram, social media, shops with films, and photographs for advertising and billboards.

What did the internet change? The internet shifted the power from magazines to bloggers and influencers. By the time the magazine comes out we have seen it all online.

Do you put work on Instagram? Yes, I have an account on Instagram and I have 3.8 million followers. I put up mainly what I’m working on now but sometimes I look at what I did in the past. I started the Towel series especially for Instagram, where everybody was photographed with only a towel, and in the book we have a picture of [Italian ] Bianca Balti from that series.

Why do a book and not put on a show? A book is something that stays, that people can look at many times, and get inspired [by] and discover, whereas a show has a short life and is transient.

Is Italy one image? Italy is a thousand images, but, then again, together they make one.

Ciao by Mario Testino is published by Taschen at £60. Visit taschen.com and mariotestino. com

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