Francesco Scavullo Photography

Francesco Scavullo (January 16, 1921 – January 6, 2004) was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits. Scavullo was born in Staten Island, New York City. Early on, he used his father's camera to photograph his sisters who would model for him. After graduating from high school in 1945, Scavullo began working for a studio that produced fashion catalogs. He soon moved to Vogue. Scavullo spent three years as Horst P. Horst's assistant, studying Horst's techniques. In 1948, he created a cover for Seventeen that won him a contract with the magazine. Scavullo soon opened his own studio in Manhattan. Good Housekeeping cover from July 1967. Cover photo of Alana Collins (later Alana Stewart) by Scavullo. In 1969, Scavullo painted singer Janis Joplin, with a cigarette in her hand, a picture exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The museum poster refers to Joplin, who died in 1970, as having a "free-spirited fervor of the counterculture revolution." Some of Scavullo's more controversial work included a Cosmospolitan centerfold of a nude Burt Reynolds, and photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some considered overly sexual. He also befriended a young teenager from Philadelphia, future supermodel Gia Carangi, whose career he was largely responsible for launching.[citation needed] Later, when Carangi's heroin addiction made it impossible for her to find work, Scavullo continued to employ her and support her until her eventual death from complications relating to AIDS. Scavullo also created shots for various movie posters, album covers and Broadway shows, including one for A Star is Born (featuring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson), Judy Collins' Hard Times for Lovers, a portrait of Julie Andrews for Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria...

Artist: Francesco Scavullo Title: Janis Joplin Year: 1969 Medium: Gelatin Silver Print, studio stamped verso Size: 13.75 x 9 in. (34.93 x 22.86 cm) ...