Mario Sorrenti – The fashion photographer with an ‘obsession’

Almost all boyfriends take photos of their girlfriends, in an array of ways. So its fitting that in 1993, Mario Sorrenti made his explosive debut into the fashion photography world by taking a picture of his naked girlfriend. He was 21 years old and that girlfriend happened to be Kate Moss. And the images he shot were for Calvin Klein’s “Obsession” ad campaign. This guy is definitely talented, but maybe he’s also had some damn good luck along the way. Whatever it is, his bold and sensual images are now, 21 years later, a staple in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, W, and many other fashion publications.

Currently signed exclusively with the agency Art Partner, Italian-born and New York-raised, Sorrenti is best known for his ability to capture the vulnerability and beauty of his subjects, even more so when nude. These are some of his most striking works featuring some of the world’s top models and stars:

[ WARNING: NUDE IMAGES BELOW. IF SENSITIVE DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ] 

Vanessa Axente for Calvin Klein – 2014

Andreea Diaconu for Vogue Paris – June 2013

Mila Kunis for Gemfields – 2013

Isabeli Fontana for the Pirelli Calendar – 2012

Joan Smalls for the Pirelli Calendar – 2012

Kate Moss for the Pirelli Calendar – 2012

Rihanna for GQ – December 2012

Candice Swanepoel for Vogue Italia – March 2012

Scarlett Johansson for Vanity Fair – December 2011

Dakota and Elle Fanning for W Magazine – December 2011

Abbey Lee Kershaw for Vogue Italia – August 2010

Eniko Mihalik for Vogue Paris – August 2010

Scarlett Johansson for Mango – 2009

Kate Moss for Calvin Klein “Obsession” – 1993

We cannot forget this haunting image of Kate Moss that started this enviable career and made Sorrenti a regularly mentioned name in fashion photography industry.

Kate Upton goes zero-gravity for Sports Illustrated

Kate Upton is only 21 years old but she has quickly become a highly-demanded and talked-about top model. Managed by IMG Models, Kate has only been in the business since 2008 but since then has appeared on several magazine covers such as Vogue Italia, British Vogue, Cosmopolitan, French ELLE, GQ, and Esquire; but she is most loved for her appearances in Sports Illustrated.

Kate’s fans already think she’s something other-worldly; but in her recent shoot for Sports Illustrated where she defies gravity in a zero-gravity environment wearing nothing but tiny bikinis, she’s gone to a whole new level.

The images were used in the magazine’s 50^th anniversary edition and were a once-off execution. Kate managed to look graceful and still amazingly sexy while floating around the zero-gravity plane, the “G-Force One”, at the Space Coast Regional Airport at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Kate looked completely at ease in the conditions originally designed for astronauts to be trained for their missions into space. The idea is original and has been pulled off extremely well, and Kate’s aplomb has had a lot to do with that. Any other publication that attempts to replicate this will have a difficult standard to live up to.

The magazine was released on the 18^th of February, and features models Chrissy Teigen, Lily Aldridge, and Nina Agdal on the front cover while Kate appears solo on the back cover following her cover girl spot over the last 2 years.

Eva Longoria – Maxim’s “Woman of the Year 2014”

It’s a little early in 2014 to name someone “Woman of the Year” but when that someone is Eva Longoria, there’s no explanation needed.

Eva is going to be 39 years old in March this year yet she somehow still has the body of an 18 year old, and that alone was reason enough for Maxim magazine to name her “Woman of the Year”. She’s worked hard to maintain her figure and even harder to make a name for herself in the acting industry.

She got her major breakthrough role in the daytime television serial The Young and the Restless in 2001 but she really became a household name in 2003 when she was cast as Gabrielle Solis in the infamous ABC series Desperate Housewives. For Eva, the “overnight” success that came with Desperate Housewives had actually taken her many years of perseverance to achieve. Her most major film role to date is The Sentinel released in 2006, in which she starred opposite Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. Eva had come a long way from being crowned Miss Corpus Christi, USA in 1998 to Hollywood fame.

This is Eva’s first Maxim cover after eight years, having been on it in 2005 and 2006; but with her stunning wavy hair, the arresting black eyeliner, and a simple white tank top, Eva shows why she’s one of the ultimate cover girls. She’s graced the covers of international magazines like GQ, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Marie Claire and has become one of the most ubiquitous brand ambassadors of the 2000’s, having contracts with L’Oréal, Heineken, Magnum Ice-Cream, and Bebe Sport.

 Other than her acting abilities and possessing the body of a goddess, Eva has a brain too. She obtained a Masters Degree in Chicano Studies from the California State University in May 2013 and also has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Kinesiology. She’s also a business woman with a restaurant to her name in Hollywood, a philanthropist with a charity called “Eva’s Heroes” aimed at aiding developmentally disabled children, and an author with her first book published in 2011 titled “Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends”.

So it’s clear that since her days as one of the most iconic housewives in television history, Eva Longoria has been keeping herself pretty busy. It’s just a pity that we don’t get to see her as much as when she was on our television screens, but those Maxim images definitely make up for it.

Cara Delevingne – Fashion’s New “It” Girl

Every once in a while, there’s a face that comes along in the fashion world that leaves the rest of the world breathless once discovered.

The world first took Cara Delevingne seriously in 2011 when she was seen in ad campaigns for Burberry and H&M. And after just two years, she was named model of the year last November at the British Fashion Awards. And it was an award that was well earned. She's been photographed by Mario Testino for the cover of British Vogue; she's appeared in ad campaigns for Chanel, Burberry, and H&M, among others; and she seems to have walked almost every runway in New York, London, Milan, and Paris for most major designers.

Recently she’s been seen in a small role in the film Anna Karenina alongside Keira Knightly and on the Victoria's Secret ramp modelling the Pink line for teens.

But even at only 21 years old these milestones and achievements, revered in the fashion industry, hardly seem to encompass the powerhouse that is Cara.

She has “the” look; the delicate mouth, the elfin cheekbones, the bushy eyebrows that need no introduction. Then there's her colourful lineage and background straight out of a movie script: her grandfather, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, was a prominent newspaper executive; her eccentric mother, Pandora, a personal shopper; her father, Charles, a handsome man about town; and her older sister Poppy, also a successful model and socialite.

But perhaps the best part of Cara, the part that her facial features and body language epitomise so intriguingly, is that punch-to-the-gut personality that make so many of the headlines about her. She’s witty, quirky, and enchantingly unpredictable.

A perfect fit for the fashion world, Cara gives the photographer what they want before they even realize they want it. She’s a photographer’s dream, daring and experimental, and has even gone pretty much nude in November last year for a shoot with Nick Knight for SHOWstudio and Garage magazine. She always manages to be classy and sultry – a combination not easily achieved.

Renowned photographer Mario Testino has called her “the new Kate Moss” – but this wild-child who cites Charlie Chaplin as her style icon and the Milan-based street-wear brand You Need This Shit as a favourite label – isn’t replacing anyone in the fashion world but is carving out her own niche.

Kate Moss - The Making of an Icon

My newest book bought primarily for inspiration, through words as well as images. Kate Moss has always been one of my most eye catching models.

Buy the book - it makes an awesome coffee table book.
Avaialble at Exclusive Books in South Africa.

Favourite Quote: Then more visible they make me, the more invisible i become." - Kate Moss

"Years after her discovery at age fourteen at New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport and her quick ascent to the top of the supermodeling world and choice luxury-brand figurehead, Kate Moss represents an unusual success story: that of a middle-class teenager who became one of the best-paid models in the world with no apparent effort. Hers is a story of endless reinvention: more than twenty years later, despite tabloid scandals, drug use, rehab, and tumultuous high-profile romances, Kate Moss appears before us as a fresh creation each time, an ideal subject able to adapt to any circumstance, recast herself ceaselessly through self-staging and self-narration, and make the world fall in love with her over and over again.


In Kate Moss: The Making of an Icon, Christian Salmon's insightful text, accompanied by more than sixty gorgeous images, explores this phenomenon-the story of an icon, a muse, a legend, an enigma-and how our culture has created the collective Kate Moss myth." - Kate Moss: The Making of an Icon