he year 1993 proved fruitful for New York photographer Steven Meisel. In that 12-month period, he shot 28 covers for international editions and more than 100 editorials and campaigns, starring the likes of Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell. A new exhibition, in the Galician port city of A Coruña, Spain, celebrates this blockbuster year and Meisel’s diverse output, which is sometimes spare and sensual, at other times captures the colourful exuberance of the decade. ‘Steven’s photographs reach beyond the surface to capture the true personality of his subject, always transcending their context,’ says show organiser Marta Ortega. ‘They are, without a doubt, some of the most important and interesting fashion photographs ever made.’ Much of the exhibition’s portraiture is in black and white, which the photographer favoured during the 1990s. ‘At the time, black and white felt cooler in every way,’ says Meisel, who notes that his photographic oeuvre is a reflection of his own personality – his deep-rooted obsessions and desires, born from reading copies of his mother’s as a child (he says that ‘visions’ of fashion have played like a movie in his mind ever since). ‘What you really see in these portraits is me,’ says Meisel.
