Steven Meisel

Meisel, right of center, in black

I find this one awe-inspiring:

April 27, 2009
‘Three Hundred and Seventeen and Counting’
By David Sebbah The photographer Steven Meisel has photographed every single cover of Italian Vogue for the last 20 years and nine months. From visual parodies of super models heading into rehab, to B-listers posing on the red carpet, to photographing artist Elizabeth Peyton for the cover way back in 1998, Meisel has used his lens to tap into the zeitgeist. This week, the photographer’s third book, “Three Hundred and Seventeen and Counting,” will be published by Mallard/Janvier. For information about purchasing the book, write to mallard.janvier@gmail.com. © 2009 The New York Times Company


249 Italian Vogue covers in a row? For 20 years? 317 magazine covers? The guy has been making photographs for almost 30 years, that's over ten covers a year. That is an incredible run. (And beyond my capacity to figure out just how lucrative it would be.)

Actually, I don't find Meisel a particularly interesting photographer--especially, for fashion work--but he is remarkably ubiquitous and quite a few curators, gallery owners, editors and the like disagree with me. He's in every museum show with fashion as the theme. He shot the book "Sex" for Madonna. So, he's worth checking into.

Here is a very interesting article/interview with Meisel. It's been cut down from a longer article in the May 2009 issue of Vogue.