Steven
Meisel
Steven Meisel was
born in 1954 in New York City, New York. He grew up photographing models on the
streets of New York City, which led him to the High School of Art and Design. Although
he went to art schools, he would always be one step of ahead of the game by analyzing
models of different modeling agencies. He never completed his degree in Fashion
Illustration at the Parson School of Design because he thought that the major
was too “boring”. Right after he quit school he began illustrating for Halston,
which is where Women’s Wear Daily noticed him. This is where he first
started styling his own models and teaching himself photography. At Women’s
Wear Daily, Seventeen Magazine noticed him followed by SOHO
Weekly News, SELF, and Mademoiselle. Finally, in 1992, he hit
it big time and was the first professional photographer to sign with Anna
Wintour for Vogue. At Vogue he was able to style his own models
for the French, Italian, and New York collections. This was the only freedom he
had at Vogue; the major negative for him was that he had to do what he
was told and not deviate.
Meisel is known
for discovering girls and making them famous models. He doesn’t use the typical
American girl; he uses girls from different ethnicities and backgrounds. These
models look different because they are elite, statuesque, elegant, and
elongated. They represent the exclusive collections of clothing very well.
Among these collections are Versace, Prada, Dior, Dolce and Gabbana, Barney’s
and Balenciaga. He manages to receive a seven-figure income from merely
shooting these advertising campaigns.
Meisel
is known as a very controversial photographer for some of his more risky
campaigns. His ad for Calvin Klein received a lot of criticism because it was
too racy because all of the models only were wearing Calvin Klein jeans and
nothing else or simply wearing underwear. He was also critiqued for the Sophie
Dahl Opium ad campaign because she is completely naked. Because Meisel was unique
he was able to get other photographers noticed such as Pat McGrath and Orlando
Pita. Through his extremeness of his shots, he manages to cause a controversy
that gets everyone’s attention, buyers and consumers. He has made a name for
himself that no one will ever forget, because he knows the fashion industry
better than anyone else.
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