Francesco Scavullo
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Francesco Scavullo (January 16, 1921 – January 6, 2004) was a prominent American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan Magazine and his celebrity portraits.
Scavullo was born in Staten Island, New York but when he was six, his family moved to Manhattan, where his father had purchased an upscale supper club. Although Scavullo's father had wanted his son to follow him into the family business, the young Scavullo had other plans, displaying an early interest in fashion. He spent hours studying fashion magazines and enjoyed window-shopping along Fifth Avenue with his mother.
Soon, he began to pursue his fascination with images of beauty by picking up his father's camera and taking snapshots, using his sisters as models. As his skill developed behind the lens, he began costuming them to resemble glomorous movie stars. And while still in his teens, Scavullo landed his first photography job taking promotional pictures of passengers boarding cruise ships—a job he recalled as boring and uneventful aside from a unique opportunity to photography the movie star and gay icon, Carmen Miranda.
After graduating from high school in 1945, Scavullo began working for a studio that produced fashion catalogs. He soon moved on to Vogue magazine, where he worked under well-known fashion photographers Cecil Beaton, John Rawlings, and Horst P. Horst. Scavullo spent three years as Horst's assistant, diligently studying and absorbing Horst's techniques. At nineteen, Scavullo produced his first cover photo for a 1948 issue of Seventeen magazine. The editors were so impressed that they immediately signed Scavullo, who remained with the magazine for two years and during which time, he was able to travel for photo shoots.
Following the success of his first cover, Scavullo's father bought him a Manhattan carriage house that Scavullo eventually converted into a home and studio. Scavullo would continue to live and work there throughout the next five decades.
In 1952, Scavullo married model Carol McCallson, but the couple's relationship was short-lived and the two divorced a couple years later.
During the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Scavullo was in high demand as a fashion photographer, but the major turning point in his career came in 1965 when Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown hired him to help develop a new and sexier image for the magazine. With free reign to select the models, wardrobe, make-up, and hair styling, Scavullo successfully created the image of the modern day "Cosmo girl." It was the beginning of a longtime collaboration as Scavullo would go on to shoot every Cosmopolitan cover over the next three decades. Beginning in 1972, he was assisted by Sean M. Byrne, who also became his life partner.
Some of Scavullo's more controversial work included a Comospolitan 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 maade it impossible for her to find work, Scavullo continued to employ her and support her until her eventual death from complications relating to AIDS. Her last Cosmopolitan cover, in April 1982, was his gift to her.
Scavullo also created memorable shots for various movie posters and Broadway shows, including one for A Star is Born (featuring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson), as well as a portrait of Julie Andrews for Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria. 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.
He was also popular throughout his career for his celebrity portraits with many becoming iconic pieces and symbols of pop culture, including but not limited to: Andy Warhol, Donna Summer,Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Janis Joplin, Cher, Elizabeth Taylor, and Gore Vidal.
After suffering from four nervous breakdowns, Scavullo was diagnosed as a manic depressive in the early 1980s. He spoke out publicly about his disease and urged people to learn more about it and seek treatment.
He died of heart failure at the age of 82, while on his way to a photo shoot with a then up-and-coming CNN news anchor, Anderson Cooper.
Scavullo's work has also graced the covers of Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vogue, and he published several books, from 1976's Scavullo on Beauty to 2000's Scavullo Nudes.
