Mario Testino

Mario Eduardo Testino Silva OBE HonFRPS (born 30 October 1954) is 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, Stuart Weitzman, Carolina Herrera and Estée Lauder.

Alongside his practice as a photographer, Testino has also worked as a creative director, guest editor, museum founder, art collector and collaborator, and entrepreneur.

His professional work as a photographer has been dogged by numerous accusations of sexual harassment and assault, including from his subjects.

Aaron Hicklin of The Observer described him as "the world's most prolific magazine and fashion trade photographer".

Testino was born and grew up in Lima into a well-to-do Roman Catholic family.

He was the eldest of six children and is of Spanish, Italian, and Irish descent.

He attended a Catholic school, Santa Maria Marianistas.

As a child he wanted to be a priest.

Testino studied economics at La Universidad del Pacífico followed by the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and the University of San Diego.

In 1976, he went to London to study photography after abandoning his studies of Economics, Law and International Affairs.

It was during apprenticeships at the studios of John Vickers and Paul Nugent that he made his first attempts as a photographer.

Living in a humble shared house that had been converted from a hospital, without much money, he funded himself by working as a waiter.

He had his hair dyed pink which helped him get noticed as a photographer and took inspiration from British celebrity fashion photographer Cecil Beaton.

London was a city that allowed him to flourish expressively without the restrictions he felt were imposed on him in Peru.

His work first appeared in Vogue in 1983.

During the early 1990s, Testino looked to his childhood growing up in Peru and his teenage summers in Brazil for inspiration, which helped him to shape his photographic language.

Testino has become one of the world's best-known and most celebrated fashion photographers.

He has documented subjects from A-list stars, musicians, supermodels and artists as well as subjects he has encountered throughout his travels.

His work has been featured in magazines such as Vogue, V Magazine, Vanity Fair, GQ, LOVE, Allure and VMan.

Eighteen exhibitions and more than 16 books have been published on his work.

Suzy Menkes, Vogue's International Editor explains, "Testino's skill is first and foremost to catch the moment and to bring out the humanity in his subjects".

Testino's collaboration with Tom Ford and fashion stylist Carine Roitfeld on provocative advertising campaigns in the mid-1990s is widely credited to have led to the revival of Gucci as a major fashion house.

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue stated that "Fashion photography is this uneasy mix of art and commerce and I think nobody understands this better than Mario".

Aaron Hicklin of The Observer described him as "the world's most prolific magazine and fashion trade photographer".

His persistence in shooting Gisele Bündchen and Kate Moss is widely credited with elevating their supermodel status.

Some of Testino's most recognizable work derives from his portraits of royals, most famously, his series with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

Commissioned for Vanity Fair he said: "[Diana] opened a door for me because I then started photographing the royal families of Europe extensively ... this brings out my love for tradition, for a way of showing family and the longevity of people".

The Gallery's 2002 Portraits exhibition attracted more visitors than any other show in the museum's history at the time.

For ten years it had the highest attendance of any exhibition ever to be held there.

Over the next four years the exhibition toured globally.

Testino was also the official photographer for portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the occasion of their engagement in December 2010.

Testino started the ‘Towel Series’ on his Instagram account in 2013, featuring influential people, including musicians, actors and models wearing only towels.

The series became widely replicated by his followers on the social platform and highly in demand among celebrities.

Testino was nicknamed the "John Singer Sargent of our times" by Terence Pepper, photography curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In July 2015, he took the official photographs of the British royal family after Princess Charlotte of Cambridge's christening at Sandringham Estate.

He has photographed many other royal families in a similar fashion.

Testino’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin (Undressed, 2017) the Shanghai Art Museum (Private View, 2012) and the National Portrait Gallery in London (Portraits, 2002)

More than 17 books of his photography have been published, including Ciao, Sir, MaRIO DE JANEIRO Testino, and Kate Moss by Mario Testino, all published by TASCHEN; as well as Alta Moda and Pasito a Paso, published by Museo MATE

Testino's personal art collection has been the subject of two exhibitions.