Mario Testino Quotes
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When I had photographed Prince William's mother, I brought along a CD of Dalida, a French singer, that we played on set all day to relax everyone. I decided to do the same thing for Catherine and William. The contrast of the contemporary informal music playing in the beautiful rooms with so much history caused a lot of laughter.
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I don't like a tormented photograph. Something attracts you in them, but the attraction isn't because she has a pot on her head or tonnes of make-up and weird clothes and weird everything.
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To me, the magic of photography, per se, is that you can capture an instant of a second that couldn't exist before and couldn't exist after. It's almost like a cowboy that draws his gun. You draw a second before or after, you miss and you're dead - not them. To me, photography's always like that.
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Fine artists reflect, and then they act. Fashion photographers - we act, and then we reflect.
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There's a particular style that is very Peru that you don't see anywhere else; it's got so many different imprints. When you mix Incan minimalism with the heavy, ornate Spanish Baroque, it is very interesting.
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Some of my friends say that I only talk about myself. But it is funny: my house is covered in art but with nothing of my own, and when I'm working, I'm only thinking about what the client wants. So I don't see it that way, but maybe it's true. I mean, they are my friends.
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Many people when I started didn't believe I was a good fashion photographer, and probably they still think that.
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I never notice a difference between photographing a man and a woman; for me, it's just somebody.
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Ultimately, I made my range wider because I wanted to suit each publication that I worked for. Talk about reinvention - I'm like the Madonna of photography.
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Grunge came from a group of English photographers, and they were documenting their own reality... I'm South American - we celebrate life.
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However spontaneous I hope a photograph will look, I always put a lot of thought into how I can make it happen. The very best pictures are the most relaxed, so a lot of fussing around technically can completely break the spell, and everyone freezes up with nerves.
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A fashion photographer is nothing without clothes and hair and makeup. And when I speak to other photographers, a lot of them can't reference a picture by the designer. Me, I say, 'The Balenciaga.' And I go to the shows. I feel like it's my business.
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In the South America of the forties and fifties, everyone was into beauty and glamour and fashion.
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When I see Kate Moss out and about, I think she looks more beautiful than when her hairdresser and make-up artist try and make her look like something else. And I remember when Madonna first asked Versace to book me to shoot a campaign with her, she came to see me wearing hardly any make-up, and she looked incredible.
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My pictures are my eyes. I photograph what I see - and what I want to see.
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A lot of photographers like models to be blank canvases - but bland girls don't influence me. I don't like playing with dolls; I like playing with people.
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Even someone as photographed and aware of the camera as members of the royal family needs to feel completely comfortable if they are to look their best.
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When you're nice, people like you and will want to work with you. But it can mean that they take you for granted.
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Charm, I think, is education, really, no? I was educated to be nice to everybody. If you want to be rude and mean, I'm sure your life isn't that nice.
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My original idea was to photograph Princess Diana in her tiara. But then I thought, am I interested in seeing another picture of her as a royal person, or would I rather see what she is actually about? And that's why I decided to do her without jewels, without shoes, without trimmings.
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Some things happen by accident - embrace them.
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I'm really in no one city more than two months during the year. I'm constantly having to readapt my eye to new locations.
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I am obsessed by people. Usually I try to get the girl out of the model instead of the model out of the girl.
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I have become aware on my travels that when a country loses the connection between its history and its traditional dress, something truly precious is lost.