Francesco Scavullo was an Americanfashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.
Biography
Scavullo was born in Staten Island, New York City. Early on, he used his father's camera to photograph his sisters who would model for him, and began working for a studio that produced fashion catalogs. He soon moved to Vogue. Scavullo spent three years as Horst P. Horst's assistant, studying Horst's techniques. In 1948, he created a cover for Seventeen that won him a contract with the magazine. Scavullo soon opened his own studio in Manhattan, and was married to model Carol McCallson during 1952–1955. In 1969, Scavullo photographed singer Janis Joplin with a cigarette in her hand, a picture exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The museum poster refers to Joplin, who died in 1970, as having a "free-spirited fervor of the counterculture revolution." Some of Scavullo's more controversial work included a Cosmospolitan centerfold of a nude Burt Reynolds, and photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some considered overly sexual. He also befriended a young teenager from Philadelphia, future supermodel Gia Carangi, whose career he was largely responsible for launching. Later, when Carangi's heroin addiction made it impossible for her to find work, Scavullo continued to employ her and support her until her eventual death from complications relating to AIDS. Scavullo himself was diagnosed as manic-depressive. Scavullo created shots for various movie posters, album covers and Broadway shows, including one for A Star is Born, Judy Collins' Hard Times for Lovers, a portrait of Julie Andrews for Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria, and photos of Donna Summer for her Once Upon A Time and Live and Moredouble albums and later for and also did the front cover and poster photos for KISS' 1979 album Dynasty. In 1981, Scavullo was commissioned by Mikhail Baryshnikov to photograph the dancers of the American Ballet Theatre, which formed the basis of an exhibition that was later shown in a nationwide tour. Scavullo photographed Duran Duran in the 1980s, with his work featuring on various releases including the cover of "The Wild Boys" single. He appeared in the band's tour documentary Sing Blue Silver. Scavullo's work has been used on the covers of Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Interview, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. He published several books, from Scavullo on Beauty to Scavullo Nudes.
