Stephanie Pfriender Stylander pointed her camera at a brunette British model, a young girl with a ‘funky street kid’ quality who was almost completely unknown in the fashion industry. Attempting to direct her, Stylander referenced several famous films and stars, but the references were seemingly unknown to the model – so Stylander began acting out exactly what she wanted the girl to do. Sure enough, the model quickly understood her directions; she was a ‘natural.’
It was at that moment that Stylander knew the girl was going to be a star. And her inkling about the young woman proved right – her name was Kate Moss.
She was just one of the numerous celebrities Stylander captured during her more than 25-year career in the industry, often at the beginning of their journey to becoming household names. Now, Stylander is offering a rare and unique glimpse into the personalities behind faces of those known around the world like Heath Ledger, Lenny Kravitz, Keith Richards, Mickey Rourke and Nicole Kidman in her new book The Untamed Eye.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Stylander, who has shot countless magazine covers for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, GQ, and Vanity Fair with celebrities, explained how she selected a then 18-year-old Kate Moss for a 1992 photo shoot in New York.
‘I casted her off of copies of her photos that came in from a fax machine. I was looking for someone unusual and no one knew her, but I trusted the modeling agent who I had worked with quite a lot.
Before becoming a household name, Kate Moss posed in front of celebrity and fashion photographer Stephanie Pfriender Stylander’s camera while in New York City in 1992 alongside male model Marcus Schenkenberg for a shoot that eventually appeared in Harper’s Bazaar Uomo. The image above along with dozens of others are set to be published in Stylander’s new book, The Untamed Eye, next month
‘The agent said “There’s something really special about her; she’s unusual, she’s sure, she’s kind of funky, like a street kid. There’s something about her I really like. I think you’ll like her.”’
Stylander said this was one of Moss’s first stories in America, and she was going to be shooting her alongside then-popular male model, Marcus Schenkenberg.
While trying to direct Moss during the shoot, Stylander said she mentioned several movies and stars for her to try to channel.
‘I could tell this girl doesn’t know who the hell I was talking about, so then I started acting out how I wanted her to be,’ Stylander recounted.
‘And then she just got it. She had this sensibility, she had a confidence, she had a vulnerability at the same time and she worked hard and she was wanting to please.
‘And she was into it and she was a natural. I just knew that photographers would love working with her. It was obvious, you know it was in her DNA, that she would be in front of a lot of cameras.’
The captivating black and white images during this shoot, which were published by Harper’s Bazaar Uomo, show Moss alongside Schenkenberg posing romantically with each other inside of a cab, on the New York City subway and standing in the street as the iconic Twin Towers loom in the background.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Stylander, who has shot countless of magazine covers for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, GQ, and Vanity Fair with celebrities, explained how she selected Kate Moss for a 1992 photo shoot in New York. Moss is pictured above alongside Schenkenberg standing in the street as the Twin Towers loom in the background
Stylander said: ‘I casted her off of copies of her photos that came in from a fax machine. I was looking for someone unusual and no one knew her but I trusted the modelling agent who I had worked with quite a lot. The agent said “there’s something really special about her, she’s unusual, she’s sure, she’s kind of funky, like a street kid, there’s something about her I really like. I think you’ll like her.”’ Moss is pictured above next to Schenkenberg while posing for Stylander in 1992 in a New York City cab
Of Moss, who was only 18 years old at the time, Stylander added: ‘She had this sensibility, she had a confidence, she had a vulnerability at the same time and she worked hard and she was wanting to please. And she was into it and she was a natural. I just knew that photographers would love working with her. It was obvious, you know it was in her DNA that she would be in front of a lot of cameras.’ Moss is pictured above right climbing a fence as Schenkenberg stands nearby and she is pictured above left next to the male model on the New York City subway
Working with another young, rising star, Stylander shot actor Heath Ledger in 2000, which is the same year he appeared in Hollywood blockbuster The Patriot alongside Mel Gibson.
‘Heath was like this little young boy, we knew of him but he was very young. I don’t know, kind of rambunctious in the studio, coming up with different moves, like when he turned upside down,’ Stylander said of the late actor, who tragically died in 2008 from an accidental prescription overdose.
‘He had this solemn quality that I was after, and I could see it. He was a little out of his comfort zone being in the big city and just becoming a star.
‘He seemed like he was a little bit out of his skin, just not comfortable completely. I felt like he really portrayed that vulnerability and that was really special.’
Stylander captured a now-iconic image of Ledger, showing him sporting jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt and barefoot while bending over backwards on top of a table. That black and white image appeared in Premiere magazine in 2000.
Working with another young, rising star, Stylander shot actor Heath Ledger in 2000, which is the same year he appeared in Hollywood blockbuster The Patriot alongside Mel Gibson. Stylander said: ‘He had this solemn quality that I was after and I could see it. He was a little out of his comfort zone being in the big city and just becoming a star.’ Ledger, who tragically died in 2008 from an accidental prescription overdose, is pictured above in a photo shot by Stylander that appeared in Premiere magazine in 2000
The renowned black and white image she captured of rock star Keith Richards smoking a cigarette while looking deeply into the eye of Stylander’s camera was published by British GQ in 1993. She said Richards ‘was just warm and inviting.’
‘I have to say I didn’t know what would become of Heath, but I knew he had a beautiful sensitive quality. He was kind, he was curious, and that’s always a great thing to be around when someone is young and they’re not cocky,’ she added.
‘It was great to see his beautiful career, a career with so much talent but just a very sad ending.’
The renowned black and white image she captured of rock star Keith Richards smoking a cigarette, while looking deeply into the eye of Stylander’s camera, was published by British GQ in 1993.
‘Growing up in the 1970s, I went to all the Rolling Stone concerts – so to have Keith in front of me, in front of my camera in the Nineties, was truly a dream come true,’ she shared.
‘He was just so warm, inviting and easy – it was just a great dynamic.’
Stylander created a set that was ‘very similar to a set that he would be comfortable with when he was playing.’
‘It was very, very low-key, there wasn’t a lot of construction or a lot of accessories. It was kind of plain and we had great music playing. I kept the crew small so it became intimate,’ she added.
‘Keith’s shoot was a really intimate experience, it was like we were in a room in a lounge hanging out.’
Of A-lister Nicole Kidman, Stylander said her 1995 shoot for Entertainment Weekly in Los Angeles with the actress was ‘very simple’ and easy, thanks to her wonderful spirit.
Of A-lister Nicole Kidman, Stylander said her 1995 shoot for Entertainment Weekly in Los Angeles with the actress was ‘very simple’ and easy thanks to her wonderful spirit. Kidman is pictured above in the photo Stylander captured during that shoot
Stylander also shot actor Mickey Rourke while smoking a cigarette for Entertainment Weekly in New York City in 1995 (above left). She also captured a shirtless Lenny Kravitz for Code magazine in New York City in 2001 (above right)
The famed fashion and celebrity photographer also captured actor Antonio Banderas for Entertainment Weekly in 1995 (above)
‘I love Nicole, she was so elegant, very business-like and very into it and wanted to know exactly what my ideas were,’ Stylander recounted.
‘We talked about the styling, and working on a hair piece and the fashion. It was a very simple shoot, but I just wanted a very natural beauty surrounding her.
‘Something very feminine and simple, that was really what I was after – and she was very inspiring in front of the camera. I felt like she could move in a way that was so nonchalant and you could be captivated by her expression.’
Stylander’s cinematic vision has helped her to amass an impeccable body of work during her career, and the images she captured from 1990 to mid-2000s are all part of her wide-ranging collection to be included in her book.
‘I really wanted to look and revisit the imagery that I did while I was living in Europe in the Nineties,’ said Stylander, who studied under the legendary photographer Art Kane before she kickstarted her career in the industry.
‘I loved the period with the magazines I was working with; it was very directed towards photographers’ style and I had a really particular style.
‘This was the work that I loved so much, it really spoke to me and it just seemed to be around the beginning of the Nineties and to about the 2000s where I thought it would be a good time to revisit and put it out there.’
Stylander’s cinematic vision has helped her to amass an impeccable body of work during her career and the images she captured from 1990 to mid-2000s are all part of her wide-ranging collection to be included in her book. Pictured above left is Christina Kruse for German Amica in New York City in 1995. Pictured above right is Marie-Sophie Wilson for French Glamour in Marseille in 1991
Stylander said: ‘I really wanted to look and revisit the imagery that I did while I was living in Europe in the 90s. I loved the period with the magazines I was working with, it was very directed towards photographers’ style and I had a really particular style.’ Pictured above left are Roumina and Luca Vellani for British GQ in Rome in 1993. Pictured above right is Barbara for Piaggio Vespa 50 in Rimini,Italy in 1993
Her book, which contains 168 pages of evocative and intimate portraits of celebrities and shows Moss on the cover, is set to be published September 26, 2018
She added that the time period was one of the best to shoot celebrities in because everyone was ‘very present on set’ and ‘there were no phones going off, no one was emailing.’
‘I always felt like I had a bit of a rebellious attitude towards things, and I felt like my work is fueled with that, you know it’s aggressive.
‘I do a lot of very close-up imagery and I like the emotional content to show through,’ Stylander explained of her distinctive style which inspired her to title her book The Untamed Eye.
‘It’s a bit wild, and not wild in the sense that it’s extreme, but it’s rough.
‘It’s not super polished, I don’t do a lot of retouching.
‘So I came up with the title of The Untamed Eye because I thought it was appropriate.’
Her book, which contains 168 pages of evocative and intimate portraits of celebrities and shows Moss on the cover, is set to be published September 26, 2018.
Stylander is also preparing to host a book signing at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York on September 12th from 6pm to 8pm.
She will also host an artist talk and book signing at Ludlow House on October 15 at 6.30pm in New York and will be in Los Angeles in November for another book signing.