But few people know who Peter Lindbergh actually was. His snapshot of models in white shirts was named the best photograph of the 1990s by Vogue magazine. His black and white photographs are highly distinctive. So what if she looks tired? Tired and beautiful.Peter Lindbergh was the only German in the select group of photographers who have found international acclaim in the worlds of fashion and advertising. “The cosmetic companies have everyone brainwashed,” he told The Guardian. His refusal to retouch his portraits is being resoundly echoed in the industry today. Lindbergh may not have photographed the everyday woman, but he did bring the loftiest of supermodels down to earth. “I’ve never been impressed by somebody who came in with a crocodile bag, you know?” he mused. The photographer lamented to The Guardian that he couldn’t stand the type of women that Vogue seemed to cater to before. Wintour’s vision was more suited to Lindbergh’s and she asked him to shoot the first cover under her tenure. She was let go from the publication soon after, and Anna Wintour took the reigns. The editor at the time, Grace Mirabella, threw the pictures in the trash. He lined up Turlington, Evangelista, and Patitz with Estelle Léfebure, Karen Alexander, and Rachel Williams, in loose white button downs on a Santa Monica beach. Two years earlier, Lindbergh had photographed a similar group shot for American Vogue, but it was not immediately embraced.

His photos exhibited internationally at Victoria & Albert in London Centre Pompidou in Paris Gagosian in London, Greece, and Paris and MoMA PS1 in New York. He was known for creating a sense of intimacy with women who were untouchable, from his stripped down black-and-white portraits of models, to his early-aughts color portraits of celebrities that positioned their fame as a glamorous oddity: Kate Hudson in shimmery sequins against an outdoor stage light, or Lucy Liu hoisting a javelin in a coral ball gown. The German photographer, who was based in Paris, famously shot for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as luxury ’90s mainstays like Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Dior, and Lancôme. Lindbergh, whose career spanned over four decades, died on Tuesday at age 74. The new royals of fashion were holding court in everyone’s living rooms. Soon after, singer George Michael asked all five to appear in the music video for his song, Freedom!, directed by then up-and-coming filmmaker David Fincher. These women had it, they were born with it-and no amount of makeup or retouching could fake it.

The photograph ran on the January 1990 cover of British Vogue, the models’ gazes direct yet warm, the affected glamour of the 1980s transformed into an innate allure.

Peter lindbergh