Victor Skrebneski, Famed Fashion Photographer, Dies at 90

Victor Skrebneski, the fashion photographer best known for his dramatic black and white celebrity and advertising photography, most notably “The Estee Lauder Woman,” died Saturday at his Chicago home. He was 90 years old. The cause of death was cancer, according to Cook County records. Throughout his 70-year-career, Skrebneski photographed such celebrities as David Bowie, Cindy Crawford, Oprah Winfrey, Audrey Hepburn, David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Andy Warhol, Kathleen Turner, and Barack and Michelle Obama. Born in 1929 in Chicago, Skrebneski attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He set up his own studios in Chicago in 1952. One of his first assignments was to shoot for Marshall Field’s Department Store. He got his first big break in 1962  as the exclusive photographer for Estee Lauder’s ad campaign. The world-renowned campaign launched a 15-year collaboration with model and friend, Karen Graham. Crawford met Skrebneski when she was 17 years old and was just starting out as a model. “Working with Victor was one of the great privileges of my modeling carer,” said Crawford. “He was my first mentor and taught me so much about the art of modeling and photography. Those years I spent on his set under the beautiful

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

from WWDWWD https://ift.tt/2wepSCx