Mario Testino
Mario Testino
Mario Testino OBEis a Peruvian fashion and portrait photographer. His work has featured internationally in magazines such as Vogue, V Magazine, Vanity Fair and GQ. He has also created images for brands such as Gucci, Burberry, Versace, Michael Kors, Chanel, Estée Lauder and Lancôme...
NationalityPeruvian
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth30 October 1954
CityLima, Peru
CountryPeru
chance country england follow gave individual people personal subtlety wit
England gave me a chance. It's a very individual country where people have a personal style; they don't all follow a trend. The subtlety and wit of England is incredible, and they are very creative.
people
You have to be you. You can't be anybody else. If you speak loudly, and people tell you to speak quietly, you can do it for a little bit, but loud people are loud, and people who are not, are not.
believe good people
Many people when I started didn't believe I was a good fashion photographer, and probably they still think that.
aware everybody food people peru promoting
I am very much about promoting Lima because I think Peru and the mountains and the Incas, everybody is aware of those, but Lima is something that people should discover - especially our food.
people work
When you're nice, people like you and will want to work with you. But it can mean that they take you for granted.
best people
I am obsessed with people and how to make them look their best.
people individuality want
In Los Angeles, individuality is very big, because people live in secluded bubbles. People don't walk around. They're very insular, and that allows for people to be whatever they want.
people perfection boring
Some people strive for perfection, but I often find perfection boring
believed country trained
England is the country where I learned my profession. They are the ones that trained me, they are the ones that believed in me.
aware best camera family members needs royal
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.
affinity buy clothes hang older style time whenever women year
I've always had an affinity with women. It probably started with my mother when I was young, but it was intensified by my sister, Elena, who is one year older than me. I used to hang out with her all the time, and whenever I travelled, I used to buy her clothes and style her.
beginning boy british cecil grandeur looked norman peru represent seemed society suddenly vanished wonderful work
At the beginning of my career, as a boy from Peru in London, suddenly discovering British culture and society, I looked so much at the work of the photographers Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson, which seemed to represent a wonderful vanished grandeur of my new country.
bring capture order photograph somebody trying women
I am trying to capture the women I photograph at their happiest. That is when they look their most beautiful. But I do understand that you have to make somebody feel completely comfortable in order to bring that out.
aware connection country history loses precious travels truly
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.