Kate Moss by Peter Lindbergh, two icons of their own

Kate Moss photographed by Peter Lindbergh (1944-2019) in 1994.

© Peter Lindbergh.

This portrait that Peter Lindbergh produced of the young British girl in July 1994 quickly became an iconic shot. And the symbol of the style of the German photographer, who died not so long ago: the “natural” fashion photo.

An iconic portraitist, this opponent of retouching and Photoshop respected women "beautiful as they are" and pleaded: "We photographers are here to free [them] from the dictatorship of perfection and youth." It was in fashion that he first expressed himself, and became the most singular witness to it. In 1988, he overturned the dictates of elegance on glossy paper by showing on a California beach six of the most beautiful women in the world, dressed in simple white men's shirts. Barely made up, hair in the wind. This image of Linda, Christy, Tatjana, Estelle, Rachel and Karen marks the beginning of the era of supermodels.

Six years later, the subject that unites the German photographer and Kate Moss for Harper's Bazaar is called "A Star Is Born". It will be featured in the December issue of the US monthly. This day in July 1994, when she poses in overalls, the young Briton is 20 years old and already has five years of career behind her. “She is neither tall nor beautiful by traditional standards, but why should she be? Peter Lindbergh would later say.

Before each shoot, he spends time with the model, whose image he wants to capture as closely as possible to the truth, so that it is not a stranger he then keeps in his viewfinder, but a friend. Kate Moss will be photographed in New York, in the studio and on location, and it is in the north of the metropolis that she leans against a wooden door in front of Peter's Pentax 6 × 7. His portrait appears as an evocation of a famous work by Paul Strand, “Young Boy, Gondeville, France, 1951”, a young apprentice with a fierce face, also in overalls, in front of a barrack.