Johnny Rozsa is a New York-based photographer, specializing in fashion, portrait, and celebrity photography.
Early life
Rozsa was born and raised in
Nairobi, the son of Jewish Hungarian-Czech parents.
[Lynne Franks. Absolutely Now!: A Futurist's Journey to Her Inner Truth. London: Century, 1997. p. 69.] In the early 1960s he moved to
England, where he attended
Repton School, graduating in 1967.
[Davies, Lucy. "Johnny Rozsa Photographs: Big Hair, Small Egos." The Telegraph. 22 September 2010.][Rozsa, Johnny. Untouched. Glitterati, 2010. p. 12.][ Johnny Rozsa on Facebook]
Training and career
Rozsa studied architecture, painting, and communications at Manchester College of Art and Design,
[ The British Journal of Photography. Vol. 127 (1980). p. 6.][McMahon, Milly and Sarah Raphael. "Johnny Rozsa 'Untouched'". i-D Online. 21 September 2010.] and communications at Polytechnic of Central London. Afterwards, he interned at
Vogue.
He later ran a vintage shop called Nostalgia in
Covent Garden, where he met fashion editors, models, actors, and photographers on a daily basis.
[Miss Rosen. " Untouched: Interview with Author Johnny Rozsa", lipsticktracez.com. July 27, 2009.]
In the late 1970s Rozsa began his photography career, working in Nairobi, London, and the U.S. By 1978, he had a series of four full-page celebrity portraits in Ritz Newspaper, with accompanying interviews.[Pepper, Terence. Twenty for Today: New Portrait Photography. National Portrait Gallery, 1986.]
Rozsa has photographed celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, and Natasha Richardson since the late 1970s. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including Vogue, the Sunday Times, The Observer, BLITZ, i-D, Maxim, The Face, The New York Times, and People.[Rozsa, Johnny. Untouched. Glitterati, September 2010. (publisher's synopsis)] His portraits of Ian Charleson, Sade Adu, Marilyn, and Martin Degville are part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His photographs of Leigh Bowery have been exhibited in several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, and the Kunstverein in Hanover. Rozsa has also exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
Untouched
In 2010 Rozsa published a book,
Untouched, featuring unretouched photos of 115 now world-famous celebrities, from their days before airbrushing, PhotoShop, digital cameras and enhancements, cosmetic surgery, and perfect images.
[ Johnny Rozsa – Untouched at Christopher Henry Gallery, New York] The book has a foreword by
Susan Sarandon, and launched at Barneys in New York City.
[
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "Barneys New York Announces Fashion's Night Out Details." Forbes.com. September 2, 2010.[Kaufman, Hayley Elisabeth.
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "Sneak Peek! Pre-Fame Pics of Halle, Winona, and Tilda in New Book Untouched. Refinery29.com. June 19, 2009.
Personal life
Rozsa was introduced to Buddhism by
Tina Turner in 1982, and has been a Nichiren Buddhist since then.
[Rozsa, Johnny. Untouched. Glitterati, 2010. p. 169.] He lives in New York City.
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Bibliography
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Rozsa, Johnny. Untouched. Glitterati, 2010.
External links