I met the fab Mary Russell at Vogue, my first New York magazine job as a young designer (21) on her section called Vogue’s View. She had an office at the other end of the hall at 350 Madison and I remember her telling stories about Paris or this photographer or that model. I was enthralled. She was always such fun and very accepting of this young kid from Texas who didn’t know ANYTHING. Mary proved to be instrumental in my magazine career at the time. After leaving Vogue (ahem, not my choice, but that’s another story…) Mary introduced me to Charles Churchward, who along with Ruth Ansel took me to Vanity Fair, after a brief stop at House & Garden, when it was being rebooted and that really changed my life.
Fast forward to my life as an artist, and I’ve been back in touch with Mary lately. I saw her a few years ago in Miami where she lives part time but we keep in touch, like most people these days, on Facebook. She’s the same, people don’t really change. I always knew she was a photographer, and a good one. It’s that KEEN EYE, once you’ve worked visualizing stories, it’s not so hard to DIY, really. Now she’s opening up her archive and more importantly is telling stories now from her exciting life in the new T Magazine. These are personal photos Mary shot, just for herself and you can see her subjects, often her friends, peeps like Rudolf Nureyev, Jane Fonda, Grace Jones, the Rolling Stones and on and on. She shot in black and white (Vogue’s View was also in black and white, btw, which was standard well into the 80s) Mary still shoots pictures and divides her time between Paris and Miami. She tells T:
“I had always loved clothes and fashion, and wanted to get a job at a fashion magazine. [Diana] Vreeland called Glamour magazine’s fashion editor and told her to hire Russell because “this girl looks the part, speaks French, is willing to do anything and is ready to work for next to nothing.” In the mid-’60s, Russell opened a small Glamour magazine office on the Place du Palais Bourbon in Paris. “I was paid a pittance, but I managed to pull myself together — black-black-black clothes, perfect grooming and a good French haircut.”
Throughout the next three decades, Russell styled photo shoots for renowned fashion photographers like David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Lord Snowdonand Steven Meisel. She reported on the high life in Europe. She was editor in chief of the short-lived Taxi magazine. And she played as hard as she worked. Her romantic conquests included Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata, the owner of an Italian racing team whose financier father had founded the Venice Film Festival, and Gunter Sachs, the undisputed king of the playboys, before he married Brigitte Bardot. “Europe was filled with fabulous, well-off bachelors in the ’60s and ’70s. I got to know a few of them.”
She did and isn’t shy about telling tales. Mary is currently putting together a book of her images and letters, which will no doubt be juicy! To see more pics and read more dirt in T magazine, go here. And just look at these pictures and imagine. What a gal! What a life!
Egon and Diane von Furstenberg with their two children, Alexander and Tatiana, at the Lido in Venice, early 1970s “I rented a flat from Egon in the early ’70s, after he and Diane moved to New York. Egon was such a huge catch — he was handsome, rich, related to the Agnellis, quite crazy and so much fun. Diane snagged him with fierce determination — she brought her charismatic, electric energy to the couple. They were very much in love here. And they adored each other after they divorced. They were among the most daring and avant-garde couples in Europe at that time.”
Candice Bergen at Peter Beard’s house, 1975 “This photo of Candy was taken at photographer Peter Beard’s decrepit Montauk mill house before it burned down. Candice was one of the many famous women enamored of Peter — she was at the peak of her career here.”
Peter Beard in Montauk, 1975 “I knew Peter when he was a starving hippie character from a good family. In this photo, taken at Peter’s mill house, he had just discovered the model Iman in Kenya. Peter and I flirted a bit, but I guess I wasn’t rich or famous enough to garner his attentions for more than one night of dancing at Castel’s nightclub in Paris.”
The actor Hiram Keller on the island of Mykonos, 1970s “Hiram was the most beautiful male animal ever. He starred in Fellini’s ‘Satyricon,’ and when it came out in 1969, Hiram rivaled Nureyev as the most desirable creature of the period. He whisked me off to Mykonos for a romantic weekend, which is where the photos were taken. Hiram was bisexual, and had affairs with people that I can never reveal. Years later, he died young. Sad. But I’m glad to have this photographic memory of him.”
Jerry Hall in Paris, 1970s “Jerry was the queen of Paris’s hottest nightspot, Le Sept, during the ’70s. She’d dance, and loudly, proudly proclaim in her high-pitched Texas drawl, ‘I’m gonna be world famous someday — y’all just watch!’ Jerry was smart, ambitious and a true playgirl. She hit the jackpot in every way.”
Bianca Jagger and Elsa Martinelli in St.-Tropez, mid-1970s “Bianca and Elsa both had strong and dominant personalities. They were extremely competitive with other women and each other — I gave them both a wide berth. At this moment, Bianca was married to Mick, whom she wed in St.-Tropez in 1971. Elsa was married to her longtime husband, the photographer Willy Rizzo.”
Karl Lagerfeld in mirror, mid-1970s “Karl always surrounded himself with talented people who fed him ideas. Like Machiavelli, he manipulated them, and sometimes would back them financially and lavish them with extravagant gifts. Karl has always been known for his generosity. He was a loner, a huge book collector, and he was obsessed with competing with Yves Saint Laurent when he was designing at Chloé, way pre-Chanel. He was always a fashion genius.”
Andy Warhol and gang, 1965 “These shots were taken at a raucous romp during a trip Andy Warhol and his Factory pals took to Paris for his second solo exhibition there. They posed in bed and in the bathroom of the Hôtel Bourgogne, next door to my Glamour office. The whole crew showed up pretty regularly in Paris in the mid-to-late 1960s. Andy, who is not wearing his trademark platinum wig in this photo, was not well known in France then, but his fame was growing. He was always looking for rich clients who wanted their portraits done. Andy, Edie Sedgwick and the rest of his entourage spent every night at nightclubs, including Le Sept, Castel’s and Regine’s with a cast of French aristos, models, handsome gigolos and essentially anyone good-looking enough to get in the front doors.”
(Photos, Mary Russell: via The New York Times)