Marco Glaviano Paulina Porizkova (New York), 1987

Potrait Photo of Marco Glaviano by Giovanni Gastel

When we look at images by Marco Glaviano, we are immediately struck by their intensity. Bodies are magnified to fit into dreamlike, sometimes surrealist landscapes. Great jazz musicians reveal their entire life on their face. That's the signature look of a Glaviano photo: theatrical. On the threshold of intimacy. For five decades, this icon of fashion photography has travelled half the globe, capturing the beauty of the world as well as of the greatest models who have walked before his lens. At 74, the maestro is crowning his 50-year career with the publication of a magnificent retrospective volume. A book that will be displayed in the context of an exhibition devoted to his work at the gallery Space SBH in Saint Barth, in January 2017. Let's meet the charming man who never lost his ragazzo spirit.

Marco Glaviano Richard Davis, Central Park South Studio, New York, 1979

The voice on the phone is warm. The accent musical. It's unmistakable, Marco Glaviano is Italian. "Sicilian!" he points out with a laugh. With an American passport. When asked his current state of mind, he seems content. "I am closing a fifty-year circle. I've worked hard but I've had a very good life, very intense. As if I'd lived a normal life a hundred times!" Indeed, his achievements are impressive: more than 500 covers for international publications, thirty exhibitions, photos that have found their way into museums and private collections. In 5 x 10 years, he has captured with his camera absolutely everything, or almost: fashion, women (his sirens), musicians, nature... Hardly surprising for a man who has been a jazz player since he was a teenager, studied architecture, and was raised surrounded by art. In Palermo, young Marco grew up in a family of artists where he found his first mentors among his uncles who included sculptors, film-makers and painters. In fact, it was one of them who gave him his first camera, a Leica, when he was five years old. An omen? His adventures as a photographer began in 1966 with a first studio in Rome, then in Milan where he worked for most of the European fashion magazines. In 1975, he moved to New York where successive contracts quickly followed with American Vogue and Harpers's Bazaar. When he produced the first digital fashion photo (Vogue 1982), he was experimenting with digital photography long before anyone else. Over time, Marco Glaviano made a name for himself in fashion and beauty, collaborating with the most famous magazines, shooting films and ad campaigns. In New York in 1995 he also founded the iconic Pier 59 Studios, that would become the temple of fashion photography.

His finest hour? Without a dount the 80's, the golden age. "Even if it was a little excessive, there was so much freedom". Together with John Casablancas, head of the Elite agency, Marco Glaviano took part in the creation of the Supermodel phenomenon. "With John and Patrick Demarchelier, we realized that there were extraordinary girls who were very badly paid, that everyone treated very badly. We wanted these girls to be seen as special". They certainly succeeded, generating quite a revolution with these new-style models, who were sexy, ultra-professional, and showed strong personalities. "The phenomenon extended beyond the fashion world. The 400 girls we photographed became stars, and are still stars." Among the Pantheon of top-models he launched are Paulina Porizkova, Eva Herzigova, and... Cindy Crawford, "a friend forever". Marco Glaviano tells of their first meeing: "It was in New York, Cindy was a very young model, only 17 years old. As she same towards me I knew right away that she was quite exceptional. I suggested to American Vogue that they should work with her but at first they refused because she wasn't blond with blue eyes! When she started out, everyone wanted her to have her beauty spot removed. Cindy said no. She was always very strong-willed (laughter)!" The story makes us laugh, the rest is history...

Marco Glaviano Julie Anderson (New York), 1986

In addition to his favorite muse, the master has worked regularly with some twenty girls. No more. For him, "having a good relationship with a model is extremely important, otherwise the photograph will have no soul". Through his lens, the first thing he looks for is the depth and the personality of his subject, whoever it may be. Siren or not. Is this fascination for beauty the guiding principal of his work? "It's the most beautiful thing in the world. You can find it wherever it exists. In a young girl, a tree, a landscape, an old woman... you have to look for it". In St Barth, he seems to have found it. His island retreat, his "passion" for more than forty years, and his playground. That is where half of his photos have been taken and where he started his first fashion shoots. In the 70s, it was where he found a "simple life" and an unspoiled natural environment that reminded him of his "Sicily of old". "At the time we had nothing, no water, no means of communication, sometimes there was no food. It was incredible. Like being on the moon". If his beloved island remains his "favorite plave on earth", what does Marco Glaviano aspire to now? In between photo campaigns, the artist is devoting more time to his own personal work. A retrospective exhibition will go on tour in 2017 making a stop in January in St Barth, at the Gallery Space SBH. And he is publishing a new collector's album Glaviano 50, a selection of iconic images - as well as some previously unpublished - covering the past five decades. The story of his life on paper. And what a life!

Marco Glaviano Jazzmine (Marrakech), 2009

Marco Glaviano Olga Serova (Sardenia), 2009

To find out more about available pieces by the artist, contact Space Gallery St Barth

info@spacestbarth.com

www.spacegallerystbarth.com