Tag: photography

The Fashion Photographer Who Became Prince Charming

This is one of those cases of which came first – the chicken or the egg? For Alexi Lubomirski the answer will be different to that of most people. You may have been acquainted with his charming persona for the last decade, as the photographer who shoots celebrities and top models for publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, GQ and Allure. But the famed photographer with good looks of a male model, or even perhaps Prince Charming, is in fact a real prince. More specifically, His Serene Highness Prince Alexi Lubomirski of Poland. So which came first, the photographer or the Prince?

As hard to picture as it is, His Serene Highness’ current address is not a castle, but a New York city apartment and his story is nothing close to a fairy tale. Lubomirski has been familiar with his title since the tender age of 11, but only recently made it public. The revelation of his heritage came to him as a surprise and a shock, as the young child was coming to terms with his nobility, his mother was also responsible for explaining that other than the title, there was not much left to show for a royal life. No castles, no crown and no pomp, but in fact, there was a lesson to be learned. “If you are to be a prince in today’s world, you have to be a prince in your heart and in your actions.” That was the advice his mother passed on to him, when the family lived in Africa.

Alexi was born in London to his Peruvian mother and Polish father. At the age of seven, he moved to Botswana with his birth mother and English stepfather. Perhaps it was this eclectic mix that transformed Lubomirski into the creative force that he is today. His mother wanted him to become an international lawyer, but she never stopped him from pursuing his artistic endeavors, which earlier in his life included painting.

It was his stepfather who gave him his first camera at the age of 11. During his teenage years at school in Oxford, Lubomirski spent his free weekends doing odd jobs waiting tables, gardening and bartending in order to save up money to travel. His serious interest in photography developed whilst traveling in Peru during a gap year at college.

His interest later shifted from social commentary to narrative based photography during his studies at University of Brighton in the UK. It was shortly after finishing his studies that he was introduced to Mario Testino, whom he assisted for the next four years whilst living between Paris and London. Towards the end of his time with Testing, Katie Grand, a British fashion journalist and stylist, approached Lubomirski to shoot for The Face, and later for Harper’s Bazaar US.

Since then Lubomirski has become an established name within the fashion industry with an impressive client list, shooting for such publications as Harper’s Bazaar UK, Vogue Germany, Vogue Russia, Vogue Spain, Vogue China, Vogue Nippon and Wonderland.

He has also become a firm favorite with celebrities and has shot cover stars such as Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Scarlett Johansson to name but a few. In 2008, Lubomirski had his first exhibition, ‘Transit’, a mixed media commentary on television culture, comprised of pre-conceived film stills, at Milk Gallery in New York.

For his recent book ‘Princely Advice for a Happy Life’, Alexi’s goal was to put down in paper concepts that are passed on from generation to generation, encompassing anything from good manners and chivalry to courage, honor and romance. The book was a personal project which would serve as a gift to his firstborn son. It was an illustrator friend of the photographer who encouraged Lubomirski to get it published. The illustrator was charmed by the advice contained in the pages and saw necessity for the youth of today to have a tool to learn from. After two years of insistence on the part of his friend, Alexi finally agreed and thus was published a very princely (and personal) book of etiquette. The book itself is evidence of Alexi’s own advice; all proceeds from the sales are donated to the charity Concern Worldwide, proving that the line “show appreciation for your blessings in life, by blessing others with gifts of kindness” is not just something to fill a page in a book, but something to be lived by.

Decade by Alexi Lubomirski

The Prince was well taught and by living the principles passed on to him as a young man, he was able to become this larger-than-life photographer, whose career seems much greater than the ten years documented in his other book “Decade”. This, a collection of highlights of the photographer’s work, goes far beyond the 250 images contained in the tome. The photography book was conceived during hurricane Sandy, while Lubomirski was stranded at home without much else to do, and later on with the help of Alex Gonzalez, who fine tuned a theme which focused on the elegance of women, showing them in the way this photographer knows best – classic, happy and confident.

The images range from actresses like Lupita Nyongo, Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett to supermodels including Karolina Kurkova. When asked about the difference between shooting actresses and models, the photographer states that “a model will shoot in whatever direction you want, while celebrities impose more boundaries as they are not hiding behind a character.”

So one could assume that shooting celebrities would be a challenge, but not for Lubomirski. “I learned to give actresses a story line and let them act it out. Kate Winslet for instance, uses her body as a tool and has such a mastery of it, it was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. The way she moves her ankle and her shoulder and the entire body conveys an emotion, it’s remarkable. Models and actresses are both special in their own way.”

Having had such a wide range and so many experiences it’s difficult not to ask the obvious question of who has been his favorite subject to shoot? The answer is the most charming and unexpected: “My wife, for sure, when I take pictures of her I feel like I’m writing poetry. Perhaps this will be an entirely different book in the future.”

Article originally published in The Peninsula Magazine, Fall 2015

Meet the Man who Changed the Face of Advertising in America

When you hear the name William Helburn, it will probably not mean anything to you. Unless you were part of the advertising industry in the Mad Men era, or a fashion insider, Bill (as he’s called by friends and colleagues) would have flown under your radar. Contemporary to other greats like Richard Avedon, Lilian Bassman and Irving Penn, Mr. Helburn’s career started right after the war. Mr. Helburn shot faces like Dovima, Dorian Leigh and Jean Patchett for various publications including Harper’s Bazaar and Time Magazine. In the book Seventh and Madison (Thames & Hudson) the reader is introduced to this key character of a long gone era, in which the United States lived what was probably the most exciting and innovative time in advertising.

This photographer never spent much time building an editorial brand. “I never made a point to put my name under my pictures; I was working mainly in advertising and unlike magazine editorials, you never get credit for that work,” Bill explains with no regrets. “I worked a lot, I was successful, people liked me and I made a lot of money.”

Mr. Helburn didn’t really care about branding himself, so why suddenly have a retrospective of his work at the peak of his 90 years of age? “I have no idea, this is such a nuisance!” he laughs, “these people who followed my work, approached me and said they were interested in what I created and said they felt the world should know who I am.” Bill agreed with the proposition but was skeptical they would be able to put a book together with the little material he had saved over the years. “I threw away three quarters of the work I did, anything that wasn’t approved [to run] went to the trash, I didn’t know people were gonna come back and make a book about me.”

What Robert and Lois Lilly (authors of the tome) saw, was the indelible mark this photographer had left in the advertising industry. Helburn was making images that were outside the box and popped from the pages of the magazines and billboards, bringing new excitement to the ads he was hired to shoot. He was the only advertising photographer who was as trendy as the fashion photographers, roaming the world with top models and celebrities and putting them in new and unexpected situations for the sake of selling a product in a different way.

Never before would a fashion photographer shoot a car advertisement, and that’s exactly what Bill did. “I made it more interesting. I wasn’t showing the engine like most ads were. I had a model in the picture and I made that car sexy.” And Bill gets excited every time he is invited to talk about his work. “I made advertising a little more fashionable. They would give me layouts and I’d shoot that, but then I’d also do what I wanted to do and more often than not they’d pick my idea over the layout.” That was how models ended up with cruise ships in their hair, standing atop street signs or naked in the middle of a snow storm. Shock value was something this artist knew all about.

In times when the world talks endlessly about new medias and the end of the printed matter, it’s valid to wonder what made such a successful photographer change from shooting stills to moving image. Eventually Mr. Helburn saw the expansion of the television as a new media and moved on to shoot commercials. “That was the way the world was going, advertising was spending more money on TV, so I started doing that,” explains Bill. And he did that from the 80s up until the early 90s when he finally retired to enjoy his success and spend time with the family.

For someone who seemed so passionate about his work, one is left wondering if he keeps up with new advertising campaigns and magazines. The answer comes as quickly as the click of a shutter. “I couldn’t care less, I don’t keep track of it at all, I just want to enjoy life!”. And that he does, with no regrets, only happy memories. “Doing this book… it’s rewarding, they rediscovered me,” concludes the master.

Article originally appeared in The Huffington Post and VVV Magazine.