Fashion and Music Photographer @ellenvonunwerth Just Wants to...

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Fashion and Music Photographer @ellenvonunwerth Just Wants to Have Fun

To see more photos of Ellen, both behind and in front of the camera, check out @ellenvonunwerth on Instagram. For more music stories, check out @music.

Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (1997) is a critically acclaimed pop album with an unusual cover: a label-less portrait of the singer looking down, mid-motion, while her hair dangles in front of her face. It’s a fun, bold choice for a pop star of Janet’s magnitude –– and easier to understand when you consider the person who took the photo.

“I am always attracted to the [pictures] where it’s almost an accident or a spontaneous movement,” says photographer Ellen Von Unwerth (@ellenvonunwerth), who shot the cover. “I always tend to like those best because there’s an urgency and energy in it.” Though Janet was the one who ultimately chose the image, Ellen’s style is front and center: the playfulness, the spirit and the idea of capturing a real moment in time instead of something staged.

Today, Ellen is primarily known for her work in the fashion industry. But some of her most iconic pictures have been of musicians. The recent Rihanna photos in Esquire? That was her. The famed 1993 Madonna pictures in Vogue? Ellen, as well. There are also the countless album covers, music videos and magazine spreads she’s done with everyone from Beyoncé to Britney Spears.

Ellen, who was born in Germany in 1954, began shooting photos professionally in her late 20s, after a boyfriend gave her a camera as a gift. By then she had already been modeling for 10 years. However, while on a shoot in Africa, she developed a passion for what was happening on the other side of the lens. There she took photos of the kids in the village, which were later published in a magazine.

“It was very exciting,” says Ellen. “It was a much bigger part of me in there. I kept looking at the pages over and over again. I couldn’t believe it. It was just a different feeling. It was more of a creative process, because being a model you don’t have so much … I mean, of course you are creative too, but actually taking pictures, you do so much more –– you create the look.”

Ellen has been shooting photos for more than three decades, but she still remembers most of her shoots: the details, the drive and the relationship between her and her subjects. One of the first bands she ever shot was the British new wave group Fine Young Cannibals, who she photographed in a tree. Later on she would collaborate with Duran Duran on several album covers and promotional work.

“They called me and said, ‘Hey, we like your pictures,’” she says. “You know, they were very cool but didn’t take themselves too seriously.”

Working with them was a good fit: when it comes to getting the shot she needs, it’s all about a lighthearted attitude. That’s why Ellen often plays disco and funk music during her shoots to loosen everyone up.

“It’s almost like my shoots should be more like a game, like playing,” she says.

Her recent work with Azealia Banks for Playboy is a terrific representation of it. She photographed the rapper in a playful environment, wearing a Catwoman suit in front of backgrounds of pink and purple. That fun look and attitude has become Ellen’s calling card, whether she’s shooting a model, a musician or an actor.

“Often as a model, it’s like, be pretty and stand still –– and that’s actually why it was exciting for me to go on the other side, because that’s what I was always told. But I wanted to jump around and do silly things” she says. “When I started to take pictures that’s exactly what I asked the models I worked with. I said, ‘Don’t stand still. Jump around! Be silly! Live!’ Because I wanted to capture a piece of life. I don’t want to capture a posed moment. I want to capture something with emotion.”

––Instagram @music

by via Instagram Blog