Roxanne Rowitt is an ubiquitous fashion photographer who has captured candid shots of top designers and models frolicking backstage at the world’s fashion shows, where the behind-the-curtain sights rival the main events on the catwalk. It revealed many things..
Her daughter, Vanessa Saleh, said she died in hospital from complications of a stroke after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Lowwitt has captured industry luminaries with vigilant Fashion Week appearances, party shots, and editorial portraits for magazines such as Vogue, Allure, and GQ. She covered fashion insiders, and in the process of accessing art stars, she became herself (Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali), music (Madonna, David Bowie) and film (Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke).
In her 40-year career, she has documented the evolution of fashion and fashion photography, from Halston and Yves Saint Laurent’s Studio 54 days in the 1970s to the rise of so-called supermodels as pop stars. From the 1990s, designers such as Virgil Abloh and Demna Gvasalia of the hip-hop era appeared.
An untrained photographer, Ms. Lowitt pretended to be a hairdresser with a model friend and began sneaking past security guards to gain access to the backstage circus of fashion shows. rice field. A household name that predates the age of social media and smartphones, she can be seen joking around in her outfits in the evenings at fashion galas, trying on outfits in hotel suites, or hunkering down in the backseat of a limousine. We went beyond paparazzi territory with an insider glimpse of her A-listers getting down.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Rowitt. 2015 interview with resource, photo website. “So I’ve learned to rely on my instincts, dropping names and befriending designers.”
In time, her position among the rag industry elite stabilized.She ‘behind the visuals and witnessed her blend of vanity and fame’ Karl Lagerfeld wrote in condolence Included in Moments (1993), the first of Rowitt’s four books. He added that she was “someone who overexposes her subjects while staying underexposed.”
Still, with her trademark black pantsuit and black pixie cut (or later her bob), she was an underdog.
According to designer Giambattista Valli, “I was watching her like a black cat in a backstage corner, looking at everything with bright eyes and jumping on the best moment for the best moment.” said designer Giambattista Valli. “The Magical Moment of Roxanne Rowitt” 2015 documentary.
And she did it at a time when most fashion photographers were men. recalled in an interview with Resource. “Bulky camera gear and guys in safari jackets, pushing and pushing each other to get the best places, the best pictures.”
Instead of power, she used her easy-going charm and warm personality, actress Fran Drescher, a close friend and frequent companion to fashion events, said in a telephone interview.
“She was very loving and very nurturing,” said Drescher. “When you connected with her, you realized you were connecting with a real person, not a masked person, not a human pretense, and that’s a rarity in fashion.” “I was trusted by fashion designers and was allowed to go backstage at big shows because before Roxanne, people were never allowed to see work in progress or imperfections. .”
As a result, Mr. Rowitt’s photographs exposed the humanity and humor behind fashion celebrities who seem frozen in their idealized state on the pages of fashion magazines. Simon Doonan, her former Creative Director of Barneys New York, who worked with Rowitt on the ad campaign, said her behind-the-scenes photoshoot was “just the beginning.” Mr. Lowitt frequently shot advertisements for Dior, Vivienne Her Westwood, Acura, Coca-Cola, and others.
She had an uncanny knack for making runway stars let their hair down, Doonan added. You can make them relax and respond to her with her cocky nonchalantness.
Her most famous photographs are displayed in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One famous shot showed Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista all dressed up and thieves. hotel bathtubThere was also a photo of Evangelista shadow boxing at a fashion event with Sylvester Stallone.Famous photo of Yves Saint Laurent Playfully smoothing out the model of the Empire State Building On the sidewalks of New York.
Great photo, Mr Rowitt told interview magazine 2013’s “Something strong, perhaps with a message, enlightening or strange.”
Roxanne Elizabeth Lowitt was born on February 2, 1942 in Manhattan, the eldest of five children to Lester Lowitt and Rebecca (Zuckerman) Lowitt, and was raised in the Bronx. Her father worked as a furrier and taxi driver, and her mother, a Juilliard-trained pianist, taught piano.
Her parents separated when Rowitt was in high school, and she moved with her mother to Babylon, Long Island, New York. An artsy student who loved to sculpt and paint, she adopted her bohemian look and even dropped her black nail polish, she told an interview.
After graduating, she enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology and devoted herself to textile design. Early in her career, she produced her screens on hand-painted silk for a textile company with designers such as Ann Her Klein, Scott Her Barry and Clovis Luffin as clients.
In 1975, Rowitt met his life partner, John Granito, and stayed with Ruffin’s house on Fire Island. (Her contractor Mr. Granito was building a deck at a house near her.) In addition to her Mr. Sal, he survived her, as did her brothers, Neil and Danny. half-brother, Manny Myerson; and two grandchildren.
Her career took a sharp detour in the late 70’s. That’s when her Fashion Institute of Technology friend and fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez gave her a cheap Kodak Instamatic 110. General scene, fashion show.
Her photos caught the eye of later Detail magazine founder Annie Flanders, who oversaw fashion coverage for the Soho News, a downtown newspaper. Ms. Flanders her Ms. Lowit Paris fashion week cover.
Rowitt, a novice photographer, learned how to load the new Canon A-1 35mm camera on board.
Once there, she finds herself arguing backstage at a Yves Saint Laurent show and then being taken to the top of the Eiffel Tower with Mr. Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol. Faced with her new career, there was no turning back.
“She thought, ‘This is life,'” Sal said in a phone interview. “That’s why she decided to trade her paintbrush for a camera.”
While she admired the work of renowned fashion photographers such as Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, she also drew inspiration from unexpected sources. Weezya New York photographer famous for his shots of crime scenes and the rarely photographed Demimond of the city.
“I am not interested cadavershe said in a video interview for the website Artnet. But she added that she loves the immediacy and visceral impact of his work with People of the Night.
Mr. Lowitt inspired others, including Warhol.
“Andy once said to me, ‘I learned something from you,'” Rowitt said in an interview. “I said, really? What? He put his hands in both his jacket pockets, pulled out two different cameras and said, Color.”
Like many film-era photographers, Rowitt had both. “He was watching all the time,” Lowitt added. “Even I am.”