Mario Testino’s erotic muse: the intimate and candid photos of Kate Moss
“Awesome things happen when you choose to stop being a miserable cow.” – Kate Moss
Our eyes have gazed upon Kate Moss for over three decades now. When she first emerged as a model in her teenage years, she quickly became known as the face of ‘grunge’ with photographers of the day like Corinne Day looking to capture “dirty realism”.
From the get-go, this placed her modelling alongside musical trends, and as such, she transcended the world of fashion and became one of the most viewed faces in the cultural zeitgeist period—she has remained that way to this day.
Despite all of this – and this might even come as a revelation to some people – she has remained closely guarded in a personal sense, rarely giving interviews or passing comments. If you think it seems like a paradox that her face is ubiquitous, but her voice is not, then you’d be right. And that very notion comes to the fore in Mario Testino’s collection of erotic art, focusing on perhaps the most enigmatic face of the modern era.
As the description for Kate Moss by Mario Testino reveals: “Kate + Mario = fashion dynamite. This book is the legendary photographer’s personal homage to his greatest muse: a young girl that captured his heart and eye with her beauty, humour and spirit, and whose image in his photographs has captured imaginations the world over. The show-stopping collection includes fashion shoots, candid snaps, and insights from both icons.”
Testino, who first met Moss when she was just 14 years old, was in tears backstage at a Galliano show because of a poor allocation, have been incredibly close ever since, and he has repeatedly come to the defence of the young model. “I know Kate very well and I don’t think she’s at all tormented, torrid, depressed; and I have to say I’m not a witness to seeing her debauched or out of control,” he said, at a time when headlines were going against the model.
“Since 15 till today, she’s never not been there on a shoot, never said to me ‘I’m tired, I don’t want to work’, never,” he added. “She works from eight in the morning till 12 at night if need be”, offering a glimpse into just why the pair work so well together.
The close-knit friendship between the trailblazing fashion pair means that the collection acts as an open book – a book that portrays the personal side of the usually guarded Moss. With backstage glimpses, early snaps and daring eroticism, Moss’s vulnerability and her rock ‘n’ roll laissez-faire side are laid bare. As she once said herself: “My mum used to say to me, ‘You can’t have fun all the time’ and I used to say, ‘Why not? Why the fuck can’t I have fun all the time?’”.
“Mario took me to a new level of glamour,” Moss said of their partnership. “I don’t think anybody had seen me as any kind of sexy model before he did. He was the one that transformed me. Before him I was just a grungy girl, but he saw me differently. He was the first to say ‘Oh, she’s quite sexy. I’ve seen her out! I know she’s not just that grungy girl’. He’d seen me in a pair of heels, getting glamorous – and he was the first to start taking pictures of me in that way. He changed the way people thought about me as a model, for sure. Later other people started working with me in that way, but he was the first.”
The model added, “People are really enthralled by Mario, when they meet him he’s so giving and generous with himself, it’s never just about him. He always gives so much of himself – he’ll teach people, he’ll help people, he’s really sensitive to people and who they are. When he walks in a room it’s like a light has been turned on. He has passion and energy and vibrancy and all those things that make a person a superstar really.”
That trailblazing spirit has proved defiant and liberating, but it also hasn’t been without its controversy. Whether that controversy has been through her own pitfalls or the damaging ways of an exploitative industry, she has always displayed fortitude and moved on with her head held high. These tales of tribulations within the industry were bravely put forth in her autobiography, and this Taschen collection also ratifies them in its own way.
“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,” Testino once commented. “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”. And you can get a taste of all that below.
You can check out the candid images that Mario Testino captured over the years with Moss below and find out more, and collect a copy of your own by clicking here.
Kate Moss by Mario Testino:
