Diana Vreeland spoke the best lines. “You gotta have style,” she once said, “It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody. I’m not talking about lots of clothes.”
Vreeland, herself, embodied this notion of making oneself fabulous. While not particularly pretty nor comfortable about her looks, Vreeland, whose own mother cruelly called her an ugly duckling, and perhaps fueled by this horrific treatment, morphed into the most stylish woman of her time — of all time.
Her tenures helming both Harper’s Bazaar (1936–1962) and Vogue (1963–1971) set the table for defining fashion’s zeitgeist. Diana found beauty in the unexpected and pushed her agenda: Be anything but boring! Possess some pizzazz! She worked with and pushed photographers like Richard Avedon and with unlikely models like Edie Sedgwick, Penelope, and Lauren Hutton.
Taking a page from Diana’s ethos, Genlux believes in giving a platform to passionate up-and-coming photographers, stylists, models, makeup artists, hairstylists, designers, and actors — particularly those with flair.
(l-r) Daniella Pineda, photographer Robert Steinken, and lighting director Robert Morris, check photos on the monitor
Take talented hairstylist Robert Steinken (shown above with actress Daniella Pineda and lighting director Robert Morris). With ample parts passion and pizzazz, he heeded Diana’s call and reinvented himself as a photographer, and a good one at that. His superb photos of our Genlux cover model and actress Daniella Pineda and models Leanna Burgos and Milena Ilina — thanks in large part to the girls’ sense of adventurousness — are anything but boring.
I also had the chance to bring on first-time Genlux shooters in Marina Ray, Ron Beaver, and Patrick Curtet. Marina’s in-your-face shots of gap-toothed beauty Amy B. are thought-provokingly beautiful; meanwhile, Ron’s stunning jewelry-focused images bring us back to a time in fashion photography when famed beauty photographers like Irving Penn and Hiro truly understood their craft and the nuances of lighting.
Dare I leave out model-turned-fashion photographer Holly Parker. The New York-based shooter invariably brings brilliant location stories to Genlux and brings us two shining examples in the latest issue.
“There’s only one very good life,” Vreeland said, “and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself.” Are you ready to reinvent yourself?