Mario Sorrenti and Dennis Freedman discuss Mario's new book Kate in New York's SVA Theatre earlier this week

Mario Sorrenti talks Kate Moss and more in New York

Sorrenti tells former W and Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman about his love for Kate and conceptual art

The beautiful photographs the Italian photographer Mario Sorrenti first shot of Kate Moss were more than the fruits of an artistic collaboration. As he explains in our new book, Mario met Kate while working as a model in London in 1991. 

“I remember sitting next to her and feeling like my heart was going to stop,” he says in Kate by Mario Sorrenti. “I was completely overwhelmed by her charm and beauty. When the shoot ended, I didn’t think I’d see her again. Several weeks later, by chance, I met her at a party in South Kensington. We hung out all night, walking into the early morning, until we feel asleep in the grass in Hyde Park. We spent the next two years together; we were inseparable.”

 

A spread from Kate by Mario Sorrenti
A spread from Kate by Mario Sorrenti

Those exquisite, intimate diary-like images, remain an incredibly touching body of work. However, they remain only one discrete project within Sorrenti’s long and varied career.

As he told Dennis Freedman, the founding creative director of W magazine, and former creative director of Barneys, at New York’s SVA Theatre earlier this week, his career behind the camera lens is as varied and noteworthy as Moss’s life in front of it.

 

 

Mario Sorrenti and Jane How Watermelon
Mario Sorrenti and Jane How Watermelon

Like Kate, the stylist Jane How is another English lady who has helped Mario produce some striking images for the international fashion press including the great water melon shot above.

And, he’s also branched out into the art world. As Mario told Freedman, in 2007 he began to work with the Californian conceptual artist John Baldessari, (picture below) bringing Baldessari’s signature, blocked-out photo technique out of the art gallery and into the pages of glossy magazines.

Mario Sorrenti and John Baldessari's shoot for W Magazine, featuring Christian Louboutin shoes
Mario Sorrenti and John Baldessari's shoot for W Magazine, featuring Christian Louboutin shoes

 

We love these later shots, but we're glad Baldessari didn't add anything to Mario's Kate Moss shots; they really can't be improved on. To see how Mario’s career began so beautifully, order a copy of Kate by Mario Sorrenti here.

Kate by Mario Sorrenti
Kate by Mario Sorrenti