The Man the A-List Calls

What is it about Mario Testino?

By a combination of charm, luck, hard work and patronage, he is now unassailable as the fashion industry's favourite snapper, the photographer du choix of every label, every magazine (though he's on contract to Vogue and Vanity Fair), every stylist and every model. He has managed to transcend the constraints of the frock shoot to become a sought-after portrait photographer, specifically requested by Madonna, Gwyneth, Angelina – and he was once, famously, called in by Diana for perhaps her warmest-ever sequence of images. Many admirers have testified to the "nonchalance" of Testino's photo-shoots, the relaxed, almost intimate, feel to the pictures, as though the overly-papped film and pop stars have discovered a friend, rather than a cold-eyed voyeur, behind the lens.

8 March 2008 by Melissa Lyttle

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