Vanessa von Zitzewitz: Ambassador profile
Although both of her parents were keen photographers Vanessa von Zitzewitz had little inclination for a career behind the lens when she was growing up. That changed when, as a part of her degree in Graphic Arts, she was obliged to take a two-month course in photography and from then on she had only one career path in mind...
Vanessa admits: "My parents are both very good photographers, and there were always lots of cameras around the house. My father was very keen – he was always buying the latest piece of equipment. He had to have the latest new gear."
Despite being surrounded by cameras as a child it was whilst studying at the Parsons School of Design in Paris that photography really came into her life. She recalls: "They told me that as part of my graphic design course I had to take a photography course. At first I thought 'yuck', but the class was only twice a week for two months."
Like many students who study photography Vanessa began her learning curve with a manual SLR – in her case the Nikon FE: "It was a complete manual camera with all of the pull-up controls and dials." Although her photographic education was quite short it was enough to get Vanessa hooked and within a month she had installed a small darkroom in her flat.
She says: "About 90% of my photography is self-taught. I think that I've got a 'good eye'. Studying graphic design helped me a lot to understand the 'feel' of what I wanted to get." To help her on her way Vanessa hired an assistant who, she admits, at the time was probably more experienced than her in the practical and technical aspects of photography. But her instinctive eye for subjects was soon to more than make up for any gaps in her overall photographic knowledge.
Of her first book project Vanessa remembers: "I had a boyfriend in Italy at the time (around 1991) who was friends with an artist – Ezio Gribaudo – who worked only in white. I had to photograph his white sculptures and paintings on a white background. The job was like enlarging the little I had learned (about photography) and expanding it by 100%." Vanessa was shooting with a 6x6 medium format Hasselblad 500C/M at the time – a camera that she had been given by her father.
She reveals: "I said 'yes' because I wanted to get published. It was tricky because at the time it was different to today – you had to wait for the results to be printed to see what you'd shot." The photographic results were obviously fine as the book, 'Ombre Bianche', was published by le Cercle d'Arts de Paris – "an incredible art publisher," according to Vanessa.
With her first book published Vanessa began putting together a project with images shot in markets around the world. "I had always been travelling a lot and I started to do a series of pictures of people working in markets in Europe and South Asia. That was when I started getting into portraits. The people are happy in those markets and you can practice shooting portraits in a very nice way."
Vanessa laughs as she recalls: "I was still a student at the time; using a Nikon FE – my mother had given me that camera - for portraits and my father had given me an old Hasselblad 500C/M. So my cameras were from my Mum and my Dad."
Her 'portraits in markets' project led on, in 1992, to a more high profile portrait project – Passage dans la Lumiere – that included a portrait of the Fiat car tycoon Gianni Agnelli. Vanessa reveals: " My most amazing portrait is of Gianni Agnelli. It is something I still have on the wall in my office." She had been going to wedding with her then boyfriend and was invited to travel to the event in Agnelli's private plane.
Vanessa adds: "I was travelling with him (Agnelli), but I was very shy and I asked him if I could do the portrait. I took three shots using a 50mm lens - I don't know how it was in focus as I was so nervous." The Passage dans la Lumiere catalogue featured images shot mainly in the dark with just one lamp: "The whole thing had a very mysterious feeling. It featured writers, artists and actors such as Marisa Berenson."
Freely admitting to a career that has been blessed by "a lucky star", the next twist in Vanessa's photographic direction happened via a chance encounter in a restaurant. It was there, through a friend who worked for Cartier, that she met a representative from the Cartier jewellery firm who had heard that she was a "good photographer." This meeting led to a six-year association with Cartier and helped to establish Vanessa's reputation as a photographer with a penchant for shooting superb images of quality jewellery.
Vanessa von Zitzewitz: Ambassador profile
Vanessa adds: "During those years I photographed the most beautiful women in the world with Cartier jewellery. I got requests from Cartier Rome, New York, and Tokyo and then we did a book 'New Bond Street' for Cartier London – I designed the book as well." The idea of photographing female personalities from the various countries was taken up by many Cartier operations around the world, culminating in a book project in the USA.
Vanessa explains: "The last book I did for Cartier was 'Untamed by Cartier' featuring the most beautiful US girls, Cartier's jewellery and exotic animals. The girls included Sarah Jessica Parker, Stephanie Seymour, and Lisa Marie Presley, who was on the cover." The book marked the 150th anniversary of Cartier and was clearly a project Vanessa enjoyed: "I love animals as well and the book is something of an homage to Avedon."
She admits: "Avedon is my great inspiration, but I have never tried to copy him. Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton are my heroes. They each innovated, in their very special way, in photography through movement, composition and sheer creativity."
In fact Newton lived across the road from Vanessa's father in Monaco. She recalls: "I knew Helmut Newton quite well – he is an inspiration as even without any lighting he would get a great picture, whether it be a woman on a car with a breast just popping out, or whatever. Newton told me, 'you don't need four or five burst of lights – just concentrate on the subject and one light. Don't waste time with anything else'."
That advice was clearly taken on-board, as Vanessa states: "It makes me laugh when you see people with multi light set-ups – you only need one reflector and one source of light. After all, there's only one sun!"
Other jewellery makers and style houses quickly noticed the power of the photography that Vanessa had shot for Cartier. Soon she was commissioned to work for brands such as Graff, Chopard, Boucheron, Revlon Creation, and Salvador Dali perfumes. Much of this work was shot on medium format cameras such as Contax (film) and Hasselblad (often with digital backs), before a comparatively recent switch to using Canon photographic equipment.
Her approach to photographing jewellery is often to put it in context with a model in the pictures. She recalls: "I did four catalogue books for Mr. Graff as he has the most beautiful and fascinating jewellery. I wanted to show the quality of the stones and the size – to do that you have to shoot close-up with something to put it in context. After all, what is more beautiful than jewellery?'"
She does admit that her early encounters with the jewellery industry were quite daunting. "When you're 22 or 23 years old and you're dealing with the strong, female PR people from Cartier, who are in their 40s… well, it wasn't easy. But being able to do something that people would see was my motivation."
This obsession with having her work seen was what drove Vanessa in the early stages of her career. She recalls: "I worked very hard for not a lot of money. I was obsessed with my work and being published. I had a photo lab in my apartment and I'd work for six or seven hours in there – often until 4am. After that amount of time with all the chemicals you'd almost faint. If I had any chance of being published I took it." She adds: "You need to work very hard, have a bit of talent and have a 'lucky star'."
Around the time of the 1998 football World Cup in France Vanessa was involved in a number of projects. These included a book on 'sexiest soccer players' with shoots involving Italy's Alessandro Del Piero and Germany's stalwart midfielder Lothar Matthäus, and a charity project – 'Monachrome' - for the Red Cross in Monaco.
The 'Monachrome' project began with just a letter of support from HSH Prince Albert of Monaco and the idea to photograph a number of the celebrities who were living in Monaco at the time. Vanessa explains: "Monachrome was about the most important people in Monaco - writers, surgeons, models etc." Her subjects included Ringo Starr, Shirley Bassey, and Claudia Schiffer.
The project also provided a funny encounter: "France's goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was in the Monaco team at the time and one day I saw him driving in Monaco. I drove faster than him and pulled in to stop him. I knocked on his car window - he must have thought I was some sort of crazy fan as he was quite famous at the time - and showed him the letter from Prince Albert. He agreed to let me shoot him at training the next day." The episode gives a clue to her tenacity. She admits: "I'm like a Jack Russell – once I have hold of your trousers I don't let go!"
After a long 'love affair' with film cameras Vanessa finally made the decision to switch to digital. She reveals: "For many years I refused to use digital and I still have my fridge loaded up with hundreds of films. To be honest because of the increased security since September 11 it has been very hard to travel with film. I had film damaged on three occasions by airport x-ray machines."
Vanessa von Zitzewitz: Ambassador profile
Whilst beginning work on a book, photographing the Arabian horses of the Emir of Qatar, Vanessa finally took the 'digital plunge'. "When I started to work on the horses book I got the EOS 5D and I fell in love with that camera – it's like an elongation of my hand. The shoot was a great way to become familiar with digital. I spent a lot of time in Doha getting up at four or five in the morning to photograph the grooming of the horses; then I would see the photographs in my hotel room in the evenings."
The book 'Horses of Qatar: the legend of Shaqab' will be published in October 2009 with a launch and exhibition planned to take place in Paris. The whole project has been something of a 'labour of love' for Vanessa who owns eight horses and showjumps. She reveals: "I wanted to show the 'backstage' of the horses – the grooming and the feeding. So many people are dedicated to looking after these horses."
Over a period of two years Vanessa shot over 27,000 pictures for the horses book mainly using the EOS 5D, plus her EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM and EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM zoom lenses. One of her favourite photographs – a horse swimming - was taken for this project using underwater housing for her EOS 5D. "It was on my first dive, snorkeling with a mask. The horse can only stay in the water for a couple of minutes. I think the photograph looks totally surreal. This photograph gave me the idea of filming horses underwater in the future, so I will try this with the EOS 5D Mark II."
Although Vanessa von Zitzewitz has often mixed with royalty and world famous celebrities for her work she has also decided to make charity a pillar of her work and beliefs. She explains: "I consider myself very lucky because of things that have happened to me. I felt that I was so blessed, so I always wanted to give back."
Vanessa adds: "I hope that I can open up eyes through my photography and from the start I have donated pictures. I always give 100% of the proceeds." Indeed a 2005 nude portrait of Victoria Beckham shot by Vanessa raised £180,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In addition her book 'Slaughterhouse Angels' - which documented the lives of children in an orphanage in Bangkok, Thailand - has raised over $300,000 and all of this money has gone straight to the orphanage.
Due to appearing on German television talking about 'Slaughterhouse Angels' in November 2008 Vanessa was asked to become a Unesco promoter. One of the first things she did in this role was to persuade Mick Jagger to sign a portrait she had taken of him to be auctioned off, and she is looking forward to being able to help Unesco with other projects in the future.
And what of that future for Vanessa? "I have two or three projects that I might work on, and I am now focusing more on art photography." The combination of her sparky and lively personality with her passion and obsession for photography – plus a little luck along the way – means that nobody should have any worries about the future for Vanessa von Zitzewitz being anything but a golden one.
- Technical
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Vanessa von Zitzewitz's equipment:
Cameras:
EOS-1Ds Mark III
EOS 5D Mark II
EOS 5D
Lenses:
EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
EF24mm f/1.4L II USM
EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
EF50mm f/1.2L USM
EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro
MP-E65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro
EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM
EF85mm f/1.2L II USM
EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Accessories:
Canon Speedlite 580EX II
Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX
Macro Twin Lite MT-2EX
WFT-E2 Wireless File Transmitter
Extension Tube EF12 II
Extension Tube EF25 II
- Click through to page 4 of this article to read Vanessa von Zitzewitz's opinions on the Ambassadors Programme.
Vanessa von Zitzewitz - shooting from the lip
What do you think about the Ambassadors Programme?
"I think that the programme is fabulous and must admit that I am proud to be part of it, especially as the first woman. I am looking forward to meeting the other photographers to share our passion, and Canon experiences, throughout the world."
Why do you think the Ambassadors Programme is important?
"I think that it is important because hopefully a lot of upcoming and young photographers will benefit from our experiences."
What got you started in photography?
"I got started by coincidence. During my studies of graphic design at Parsons School of Design I had to take a photo course, which was required to get my credits for that school year. A month later I had a small darkroom in my flat, and a year later published my first book."
What does photography mean to you?
"It is a way to get closer to what and to whom I admire, and to share these subjects with the world through my eyes."
What kind of photographer do you consider yourself to be?
"I am an advertising, portrait and reportage photographer."
What would you advise someone who is just coming into the business?
"Passion, passion, and more passion."
