Mario Testino: In Your Face

Even those unfamiliar with fashion photographer Mario Testino's name will recognize his influential style in this new collection's 120 images. Culled largely from British, French, and American Vogue and from three decades' worth of parties and advertising campaigns, they represent a career spent documenting the waves of supermodel celebrity and pop glamour that began cresting in the 1980s. Though technically skilled, Testino is more famed for his ability to reveal his muses in seemingly intimate moments, whether of the sexualized or candidly emotional variety. The large and generous reproductions implicitly argue for viewing Testino's work as art, pop or not, with a Gucci "G" shaved into pubic hair seeming like more than advertising and repeated images of Kate Moss suggesting honesty within the artifice. A brief essay recounts the photographer's international life, which started in Peru and never quite settled down again, while Anna Wintour's generous introduction provides the ultimate fashion stamp of approval. Cheeky, flirty, and bold, Testino's collected work is a monumental addition to the history of fashion photography that shows the artist riding that clairvoyant line between knowing where culture is headed and steering it there himself. Color illus. (Oct.)