Peter Lindbergh

Photographer Peter Lindbergh’s elegant, emotive and cinematic aesthetic, typically shot in black and white, featured in Calvin Klein and David Yurman campaigns, as well as editorial work for fashion’s greatest publications. The photographer passed away on September 3, 2019 at the age of 74. 

Lindbergh moved to Paris in 1978 and started working for Vogue, shooting for the Italian, English, French, German and American editions. Later, the photographer shot for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Allure and Rolling Stone.

In 1988, when Anna Wintour arrived at American Vogue, the editor-in-chief swiftly signed Lindbergh for the magazine. He shot Wintour’s first, and at the time revolutionary, American Vogue cover, featuring a model in a Christian Lacroix couture sweatshirt and jeans. Lindbergh also photographed the January 1990 Vogue cover that featured Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell , Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and Christy Turlington, which would become one of the most iconic fashion images of that era.

Lindbergh was one of the first photographers to incorporate storylines into his fashion editorials. His 1990 shoot of Helena Christensen playing a Martian for Italian Vogue is deemed the starting point in the evolution of fashion editorials becoming narratives. In 1992, American Harper’s Bazaar put Lindbergh under exclusive contract at the insistence of then editor Liz Tilberis.

The photographer also shot the Pirelli calendar three times, in 1996, 2002 and 2017. The 2002 calendar featured actresses instead of models for the first time and was shot on the backlot of Universal Studios. It was described by feminist Germaine Greer in The Guardian as "Pirelli's most challenging calendar yet." Lindbergh was the first photographer in the over 50-year history of the Pirelli calendar to be invited to photograph it for a third time.

Lindbergh's work is part of the permanent collections of many art museums around the world and has also been shown in prestigious museums and galleries including the V&A, Centre Pompidou and MoMa's PS1. His exhibition A Different Vision on Fashion Photography was successively presented at the Kunsthalle München and at the Reggia di Venaria in Turin. Most recently, Lindbergh took part in the exhibition "Alberto Giacometti Beyond Bronze," presented at the Kunsthaus in Zurich.

In both 1995 and 1997, he was named Best Photographer at the International Fashion Awards in Paris. In 2005, he was awarded the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Photography. 

Lindberg is survived by his wife Petra, his first wife Astrid, his four sons and seven grandchildren.