Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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S uperlatives PEOPLE, CULTURE, STYLE VIEW FROM THE TOP victor skrebneski CHICAGO���S MOST CELEBRATED FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER ZOOMS IN ON HIS LATEST PROJECT. BY J.P. ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR SKREBNESKI W hen it comes to talking about his work, legendary Chicago pho- photography, Skrebneski is creating new work that���s strikingly different but tographer Victor Skrebneski is a man of few words. Minutes equally dramatic: images of gloves (both leather and plastic), bubble wrap, into our relaxed 90-minute conversation at his comfortable, and other everyday items that are not photographed but scanned and blown contemporary Old Town studio���where generations of supermodels and up, leading to an otherworldly, X-ray-like appearance. ���The technology today superstar celebrities have posed for his dramatic portraits and stunning is incredible,��� he explains. ���So it���s like Edison with the lightbulb���we got rid of fashion spreads���he shows me a model of his upcoming exhibition at the candles. I tried scanning things and using that instead of a photograph.��� The Erie Art Museum, and I ask the photographer about his style and methods. results are stunning and as vivid as any photograph. His inspiration? ���I have In response, the 83-year-old smiles and wordlessly slides three sheets of no idea,��� he laughs. ���My mind doesn���t rest.��� I don���t sleep.��� Skrebneski���s latest exhibition, which runs July 13 to October 13 at the paper across the table between us. On them is handwritten a succinct, 10-sentence summation of Skrebneski���s thoughts on the subject, including: Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania, is a chance for the photographer to flex ���I always avoid talking about my photographs and the way that I work���; his muscles and show off some of that new work. The museum���s main gal���My pictures proclaim my style, emotions, and quality���; and ���A picture is lery will showcase the most iconic work of Skrebneski���s career as well as some of his lesser-known pieces, such as the newer about seeing.��� Whatever was recorded by the camscanned images and the photographer���s own era no longer exists.��� ���Twombly������giant blow-ups of photographed letAfter 64 years in the industry, Skrebneski has more ters written by painter Cy Twombly to Skrebneski, than earned the right to stay mum. And, to be sure, featuring the painter���s famous scrawl. the man���s body of work speaks for itself. The exclusive The native Chicagoan���s beginnings are well-docphotographer for Est��e Lauder from 1962 to 1989, umented: Raised in a row house on Grand and Skrebneski found real fame with his iconic blackRush, the young Skrebneski was playing on the turtleneck series of stark 1970s portraits of celebrities ���VICTOR SKREBNESKI swings at a local playground when he chanced upon like Andy Warhol, Orson Welles, and Bette Davis, who famously said of her dramatic Skrebneski portrait, ���I���m playing movie a black box camera on a park bench. The rest isn���t quite history, but it���s a star and doing it damn well���most would fall for it���but the focus of an artist, great start. Skrebneski went on to study painting and sculpture at the Art an artist who knows how to wield that unforgiving eye of the camera, has Institute of Chicago (���I did what they call abstract, and my favorite paintfound me out.��� Later he photographed Iman; he discovered Cindy Crawford; ings are Cubism���), but he felt uninspired. ���The Art Institute was boring he titillated the Windy City with his Chicago International Film Festival because I knew how to paint,��� he says. ���Nothing to it.��� After a stint at posters featuring nude models like Anna Nicole Smith and Dolph Lundgren; Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, he continued his and his work has been featured in 18 published books. In the realm of pho- photography, and at the urging of one of his instructors went to New York, where he found work at Esquire and other magazines. And that���s where fate tography, there���s nothing he hasn���t accomplished. One might forgive Skrebneski, then, for resting on his laurels and nostalgi- stepped in: On returning home to gather his belongings to move permacally paging through his portfolio. But even at 83, he has no desire to stop nently to New York, the then-23-year-old received the first of many working. Famous for his moody black-and-white portraits and vibrant couture continued on page 58 ���The Art Institute was boring because I knew how to paint. Nothing to it.��� MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 056-058_MA_SP_VFT_Spring13.indd 57 57 2/11/13 5:56 PM