Gösta Peterson

Image by Gösta Peterson, a selftaught photographer who made fashion history with his magazine covers of a once-spurned black model, Naomi Sims, and an androgynous British waif nicknamed Twiggy…He often recruited models to pose in natural light and in prosaic settings, sometimes even precariously on bicycles or roller skates.A Swedish-born illustrator-turned-photographer, Mr. Peterson frequently juxtaposed high fashion with the low public profiles of the lesser-known models he selected himself. His method was often to incorporate multiple images in compositions that sought to capture not just outer garments but also his subjects’ inner individuality.“Gus is very much an anti-fashion fashion photographer,” Jan Peterson, his son and manager, said in 2015.His daughter told Women’s Wear Daily in 2015 that when people asked him, “Where are your other photos of Twiggy?” he would typically reply: “I just took that one.” She added that was “because once Twiggy became Twiggy, he wasn’t interested any more.”…“The women Peterson photographed were offbeat, eccentric, irreverent, and not conventionally pretty,” she wrote. “While most models flirted with the camera, Peterson forced his subjects to confront it.”…He also photographed jazz musicians, like Duke Ellington, and artists, like Salvador Dalí…”- The New York Times

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