Ellen Von Unwerth is a former fashion model who, as a fashion photographer, has risen to the top, shooting for Vogue, The Face, and Arena. Like Helmut Newton, she explores the realm of the erotic with an unmistakable joy. Her early experience in front of the camera apparently instilled in her the will to make her life in fashion a kind of party--one at which she and the models who now pose for her are happy guests. She has not one but two new books, both, appropriately, the result of creative accidents. Wicked (te Neues, $29.95) is a study of Brazilian model Adriana Lima. "I was working in the studio, and told the stylist that I'd found a girl and I think she's incredible--at the end of the shoot let's take some clothes and do a story on her. He said, 'Oh yeah, I just bought shoes and stockings.' As Adriana is Brazilian, she is very confident with herself, even when she's naked." Book two, Couples (te Neues, $35), is a collection of Von Unwerth images. "I was doing a lecture at the International Center of Photography in New York, and I had to edit my pictures into themes for a slide show. I noticed I had a lot of couples," she says. The images bear the Von Unwerth signature, with glamour, sexiness, and youthful innocence.--David Schnauer

(photo from Celebs Gone Wild)

"Adriana," New York, 1997, from Wicked

(photos from the Ellen Von Unwerth portfolio at Art+Commerce)

"Uplifting," Nice, 1994,
from a Katherine Hamnett ad


"Brazilians," New York, 1997,
shot for the Japanese fashion magazine Dune

Transcribed from January/February 1999 American Photo.