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Steven Meisel (born June 5, 1954) is an American fashion photographer, who obtained popularity and critical acclaim with his work in Vogue and Vogue Italia as well as his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book, Sex. He is now considered one of the most successful fashion photographers in the industry.
He worked regularly for American Vogue (from the 1990s to 2000s), British Vogue (under the editorship of Edward Enninful) and Italian Vogue (from the late 1980s to 2010s).
From an early age, Meisel had a deep interest for fashion; he often preferred to sketch models while looking at fashion magazines rather than play with other things and soon enough attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City. Later, he was admitted at the Parsons School of Design, where he majored in fashion illustration and graduated.
Meisel worked for many different fashion magazines, most notably Interview and US and Italian Vogue. His first Vogue cover was for the August 1986 issue of the British edition. For almost three decades, he captured the photographs for each cover and main editorial spread in Italian Vogue. He also shot most of the covers for Anna Wintour's Vogue from the mid 90s to early 2000s. In 2014, he portrayed 50 models for the 50th anniversary of Vogue Italia.
The July 2008 issue of Vogue Italia featured only black models, and was entirely photographed by Meisel. It was a response to increasing criticism of racism in the fashion industry and became the best-selling issue in the magazine's history. When asked about the issue, Meisel said: "Obviously I feel that fashion is totally racist. The one thing that taking pictures allows you to do is occasionally make a larger statement. After seeing all the shows though I feel it was totally ineffective. I was curious—because it received a lot of publicity—whether it would have any effect on New York, London, Paris, or Milan, and I found that it did not. They still only had one token black girl, maybe two. It’s the same as it always was and that’s the sad thing for me."
Meisel has contributed photos for the covers of several popular albums and singles, including two RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Madonna's 1984 album Like a Virgin and Mariah Carey's 1995 album Daydream. His work can be seen on the cover of Madonna's singles "Bad Girl" and "Fever", and Mariah Carey's single "Fantasy" (simply a different crop of the photo on the cover of the Daydream album). He also directed the music video for Deborah Harry's single "Sweet and Low" alongside fashion designer Stephen Sprouse.
He is a close friend of designer Anna Sui, for whom he has also shot several campaigns, even though Sui rarely uses advertising to promote her clothing.
A book collecting some of his photographs, titled Steven Meisel,Meisel, S. Steven Meisel (Broschiert) (German website), Teneues Buchverlag, 2003; . was published by German teNeues Buchverlag in 2003 and sold out.
In 2014–2015, Phillips held an exhibition called "Role Play" that featured some of the photographic work of Meisel throughout the years, and which took place in the cities of Paris, London, New York, and Miami.
In April 2023, it was announced that a new book showcasing the collaborations between Meisel and his longtime muse Linda Evangelista, titled Linda Evangelista Photographed by Steven Meisel, would be released in September 2023 by Phaidon Press.
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