If you have the slightest interest in fashion, you will be excited by this: Mario Testino is exhibiting for the first time in Dubai! D3 created a pop-up space for his large scale photos and he came to Dubai to present it to the press himself. What a privilege to hear him talk about his work!
He had an anecdote for each theme of the exhibition: how Madonna was tired after a morning of shooting but he had to insist because "sadly, I didn't have the right shot yet", how he brought a real bear to pose with Cara Delevingne, how photography is all about light: "you find light, you find what you're looking for", how he shot between 60 and 100 photos before he captured what he was looking for...
But he also opened up about himself: " I tend to pick the people I like to shoot, and then I perform for them. I'm a performer, I make jokes and tease them". He comes across as a serious business man, but he lights up when he talks about his work and the people he collaborates with. The passion is obvious, and you can tell he has fun working his magic: "I believe that photography should never show the effort that went into it, it should look effortless".
The exhibition "Heat" will be hosted by D3 until the 15th April and I cannot recommend it enough!
Hopefully we will see more of him in the near future since he is "discovering more and more about Dubai" and is finding it "fascinating".
