Photographer Roxanne Lowit (right) with model and singer Grace Jones. By taking pictures of fashion insiders, Ms. Lovett became a fashion industry figure herself. © Roxanne Lowit
Ms. Lovett captures the true image of the industry's most important figure letting his guard down.
In a 40-year career that seems to be everywhere at once, she documents the evolution of fashion and fashion photography.
She did this in an era when most fashion photographers were male.
Roxanne Lowit is an omnipresent fashion photographer whose candid photographs of top designers and models frolicking backstage at world fashion shows allow people to see the scene behind the scenes can be just as engaging as the performances on the runway.
With her passionate fashion week coverage, party photos and editorial portraits for magazines such as Vogue, Allure and GQ, Ms. Lovett captures the true image of the industry's most important figures letting their guard down. Reporting on fashion industry insiders, she became one of them herself, gaining access along the way to art stars such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí, music stars such as Madonna and David Bowie, and movie stars such as Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke.
In a 40-year career that seemed to appear everywhere at once, she documented the evolution of fashion and fashion photography, from the Studio 54 era of Halston and Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s, to the rise of so-called supermodels as pop stars in the 1990s, to the hip-hop era of Virgil Abloh and Demna Smith. The emergence of designers such as Demna Gvasalia.
▲ Ms. Lovett's 1979 "Salvador Dalí, Janet Daly and the Kisser" was filmed on New Year's Eve at a restaurant in New York City. © Roxanne Lowit
As a non-academic photographer, Ms. Lovett began to sneak past security guards — posing as hairdressers, for example while accompanying model friends — into the backstage of fashion shows. Before the age of social media and smartphones, she went beyond paparazzi to provide an insider outlet for A-list celebrities playing around in evening clothes at fashion evenings, trying on clothes in hotel suites, or curling up in the back seat of a limousine.
"It's not easy," Ms. Lovett said in a 2015 interview with Resource. "So I learned to rely on my instincts, give up names, be friends with designers, and so on."
It wasn't long before her position among the elite of the apparel industry was firmly established. She is "visually invisible, a witness to the combination of vanity and fame," writes Karl Lagerfeld in Moments, the first of Ms. Lovett's four books, Moments (1993). He added that she was "someone who overexposed her subject while maintaining low exposure herself".
▲ A photo taken by Lovett on the 1995 Thierry Mugler runway, with Stella Tennant (right) with another model. © Roxanne Lowit
▲ A photo taken by model Kate Moss by Lovett, also in 1995. © Roxanne Lowit
Even so, with her signature black pants and her black elf hairstyle (or later known as a bobo head), she was very noticeable in the eyes of those in the know.
Designer Giambattista Valli said in the 2015 documentary Roxanne Lowit Magic Moments: "I once saw her like a black cat in a corner of the backstage, like staring at everything with bright eyes and jumping to the best scene at the right moment."
And she did it in an era when most fashion photographers were men. "Men are more stingy than women, especially when I started working in the late '70s," Ms. Lovett recalled in an interview with Resource Network. "These guys with bulky camera equipment and hunting jackets shoved each other to get the best spots, the best photos."
Actress Fran Drescher said in a telephone interview that she did not use force, but took advantage of a relaxed charm and passionate personality. She is a close friend of Lovett and often accompanies her at fashion events.
"She was very caring and very cultured," Ms. Dresher said. "When you connect with her, you know you're connecting with a real person, not a masked person, a person pretending. This is very unusual in the fashion world. As a result, she added, Ms. Lovett "is trusted by fashion designers and allowed backstage during the big show." Because before Roxanne, they never allowed people to see the work in progress and see the imperfections. ”
▲ A famous photograph taken by Lovett in 1990, from left to right, is of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista fighting in the hotel bathtub. © Roxanne Lowit
Thus, Ms. Lovett's photographs give us a glimpse of the humanity and humor behind fashion celebrities who are often frozen in an idealized state on the pages of fashion magazines. Her backstage photography was "a real kick off," says Simon Doonan, former creative director of Barneys New York, who worked with Ms. Lovett on the campaign. Ms. Lovett regularly shoots commercials for Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Acura and Coca-Cola.
Mr. Dunant added: "Backstage on the runway, the models would be frantically groomed, struggled and adjusted, and she was always able to relax and respond to her with a cheeky attitude. ”
Her most famous photographs have been exhibited in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One of the famous photos shows Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista fighting (dressed) in a hotel bathtub. Another photo shows Ms. Evangelista boxing with Sylvester Stallone at a fashion event. There's also a famous photo of Yves Saint Laurent jokingly kissing a model of the Empire State Building on a New York sidewalk.
▲ Model at the 2004 Christian Dior fashion show. © Roxanne Lowit
Ms. Lovett told The Interview magazine in 2013 that a great photo is "something strong, maybe informative, inspiring or strange."
Roxanne Elizabeth Lowit was born in Manhattan on February 2, 1942, the eldest of five children from Lester and Rebecca (Zuckerman) Lowit, who grew up in the Bronx. Her father worked a variety of jobs, including a leather merchant and taxi driver, while her mother was a pianist who had studied at Juilliard, teaching piano.
When Lovett was in high school, her parents separated, and she moved with her mother to Babylon, Long Island, New York. She told Interview magazine that she was an art student who loved sculpting and painting, and she adopted a bohemian style and even painted black nail polish.
Model Jerry Hall on the Yves Saint Laurent runway in 1979. © Roxanne Lowit
Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at a Palladium nightclub in New York City in 1985. © Roxanne Lowit
After graduating, she entered the Institute of Fashion Technology, where she focused on textile design. Earlier in her career, she made hand-painted silkscreen for a textile company for designers such as Anne Klein, Scott Barrie and Clovis Ruffin.
In 1975, Ms. Lovett met her life partner, John Granito, a contractor who was building a roof for a nearby house, at Mr. Ruffin's home on Fire Island.
Ms. Lovett died on September 13, 2022 in Valhalla, New York, at the age of 80.
Her daughter, Vanessa Salle, said she died in a hospital as a result of complications of a stroke after a long battle with Parkinson's disease
In addition to Ms. Saall (Lovett's daughter), Granito is still alive, as are her brothers Neil and Danny. He also has a half-brother, Manny Myerson, and two grandchildren.
Her career took a sharp turn in the late '70s, when a friend at the Institute of Fashion Technology, fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, gave her a cheap Kodak Instamatic 110 point-and-shoot camera, which she used to take pictures of her creations, as well as snapshots of the overall scene at the fashion show.
Her photos caught the attention of Annie Flanders, the future founder of Details magazine, who was overseeing fashion coverage at The SoHo News, a downtown newspaper. Ms. Flanders assigned Ms. Lovett to cover Paris Fashion Week.
As a novice photographer, Ms. Lovett learned to load film for her new Canon A-1 35mm camera mid-flight.
Once there, she found her place backstage on the Yves Saint Laurent show. She later found herself taken to the top of the Eiffel Tower with Monsieur Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol. In the face of a new career, there is no turning back.
"She thought, 'This is life,'" Ms. Sall said in a telephone interview. "That's what made her decide to exchange brushes for cameras."
▲ Photographer Roxanne Lowit. © Roxanne Lowit
While she admires the work of famous fashion photographers such as Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, Ms. Lovett also finds inspiration from an unlikely source: Weegee, a New York photographer known for photographing crime scenes and the city's rarely photographed ghetto.
"I don't like dead bodies," she said in a video interview with Artnet. But, she adds, she loves his influence on the immediacy and connotation of his work on "People in the Night."
Ms. Lovett has also inspired others, including Warhol.
"Andy once said to me, 'I learned something from you,'" Ms. Lovett told The Interview. "I said, really? What the? He reached into two jacket pockets, pulled out two different cameras, and said, "Black and white." Color. ''
Like many photographers in the film era, Ms. Lovett carried both cameras. "He has been observing," Ms Lovett added. "Me too."
原文：Roxanne Lowit, Fashion Photographer With a Backstage View, Dies at 80
By Alex Williams
Published: nytimes.com
Translated by Lin Xi