![]() ![]() Her pageboy bob haircut and frequently-worn sunglasses have become a common sight in the front row of many fashion shows. Like one of her predecessors, Diana Vreeland, she has become a fashion icon. She revived a stagnant publication, earning her wide acclaim in the industry. She returned home for a year to turn around British Vogue, and later assumed control of the franchise's magazine in New York. Her career took her across the Atlantic, with stints at New York and House & Garden. ![]() After dropping out of school at 16, she began a career in fashion journalism. Her father, Charles, editor of the Evening Standard, often consulted with her on how to make the newspaper's coverage relevant to the youth of mid-1960s London. She became interested in fashion as a teenager. Here, in celebration of the book's release and of the great man himself, the publication's authors Mauricio and Roger Padilha talk us through the significance of some of our favourite von Wangenheim images.Anna Wintour, OBE is a British fashion editor and the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. You would look through a magazine and literally stop in your tracks once you got to his photos and, once you had stopped, a dialogue could ensue.” Photographers like Chris first and foremost wanted to do pictures that were page stoppers. ![]() And as the images got more and more shocking, it got to the point where they became a bit disturbing. So it was a reaction to what had come before. You would look through a magazine and literally stop in your tracks once you got to his photos" – Christie BrinkleyĪs von Wangenheim's frequent collaborator, model Christie Brinkley explains in the book, “The thing was to try to shock. "Chris first and foremost wanted to do pictures that were page stoppers. Von Wangenheim's work was macabre, sexy, incendiary, chic and in very high demand, and before long he was shooting for everyone from Dior to US Vogue to Playboy. The 60s and 70s saw a wave of violence seep its way into all areas of popular culture, from Andy Warhol's Death and Disaste period to films like Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver, and von Wangenheim simply thought, “the violence is in the culture so why shouldn’t it be in our pictures?” What ensued were hugely impactive images filled with gun-toting beauties, teeth-baring dobermans, blood, bare breasts and billowing smoke. The flamboyant Piaggi had a vibrant and provocative vision that perfectly aligned itself with von Wangenheim's aesthetic, and under her reign he began to develop his unique, yet definitively 70s style. But it wasn't until von Wangenheim captured the attention of newly appointed special features editor at Vogue Italia, Anna Piaggi, in 1969 that the young photographer found his moment to shine. Von Wangenheim carried this fascination with him into adulthood, particularly identifying with the work of American fashion photographers, and in 1965 he relocated to New York City to kickstart his own career. He cut his teeth as an assistant for Harper's Bazaar photographer James Moore, and as a result secured a few pages in the magazine. By this time von Wangenheim was living in the Bavarian mountains with his mother and sister and, inspired by a kindly photographer living in the upstairs flat, had developed a burgeoning interest in photography. His father, an officer in the German Army, died in Soviet captivity in 1953 (most likely a suicide), a tragedy that would go on to inform his son's dark nature. Von Wangenheim was born in Breig, in what was then a war-torn East Prussia, in 1942. ![]() Now, a forthcoming Rizzoli monograph about the pioneering image-maker gives us a welcome excuse to revisit his brilliant oeuvre. From 1968 until his death in a car accident in 1981, he ranked alongside Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin in his masterful encapsulation of the 1970s zeitgeist. Chris von Wangenheim was one of the most groundbreaking fashion photographers of the 20th century. ![]()
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