Bettina Cirone (born August 19, 1933)[1] is an American photographer, interviewer, and former Ford model who lives in the Upper West SideofNew York, New York.[2][3] Cirone has taken photographs of celebrities; including actors, musicians, artists, politicians including President Donald Trump in the United States and internationally since about 1970. Her works have appeared in magazines, newspapers, books and at the Guggenheim Museum (1965). A retrospective of her work was held in Norwich, Connecticut in 1995 at the New England Museum for Contemporary Art.[4]
Bettina Cirone was a Ford model in the 1960s, during which she modeled for major fashion magazines.[2][3] She modeled for, and was a friend of, Salvador Dalí,[2][5] who gave her prints that he personally autographed, along with a copy of his book, Diary of a Genius, signed『Pour mon amie Bettina, Hommage Dalí, 1966,』and includes a pen sketch of Don Quixote. The book was sold in the late 2000s. Another was a framed print of a blue lion that signed "Pour Bettina". It, along with another print that Dali gave her, was stolen in 2014.[2][6]
Cirone works as much as 18 hours each day.[8] She has taken photographs backstage after performances, like the image of Douglas, Weaver, Hines and Vereen after Jelly's Last Jam.
She has been described as a paparazza.[8] Cirone was hired to photograph Joan Crawford in her apartment for Architectural Digest.[16]
During an assignment for USA Today, to photograph Peter Boyle, Timothy Hutton and Robert Culp at a pre-production party for Turk 182, Cirone was interviewed about her career. She described her preference to photograph celebrities when they are "willing to be photographed", like at celebrity events. One roll of black and white film that she took of Dustin Hoffman trying on hats for Death of a Salesman is one of the most well-published works.[17] In January 1986, her images were produced for a Playboy pictorial essay entitled "Grapevine: Reviving a Dead Salesman".[18]
Many of her images have been personally autographed by the celebrities that she has photographed, like two signed photographs of Andy Warhol that had been taken by Cirone at Studio 54 with author and playwright Tennessee Williams. Pictures of George Clooney, Mary Tyler Moore holding Cirone's cat, and Mia Farrow are a few of the photographs in Cirone's home.[2] International artists that she's portrayed include Jordi Aluma and Erté.[2]
Her works have appeared in books, such as Urban Design as Public Policy,[19]There's No Place Like Home: Confessions of an Interior Designer,[20]Human Biology,[21] and Hollywood Royalty: Hepburn, Davis, Stewart, and Friends at the Dinner Party of the Century.[22] A retrospective of her work was exhibited in 1995 in Norwich, Connecticut at the New England Museum for Contemporary Art. It was curated by Baird Jones, who said that she has been "one of New York's most durable celeb photographers."[3]
Cirone donated photographs or other material to the Skyscraper Museum for WTC: MONUMENT, a memorial to the World Trade Center.[23] She was also one of the witnessing photographers that captured "the wrenching images, the fears and sorrows, the reconciliation, the extraordinary drive and devotion" following the 2001 World Trade Center disaster for Aileen Ghee's Witnessing documentary and Here is New York photograph exhibit. The proceeds benefited World Trade Center victims through the Children's Aid Society.[24][25][26][27] In 2013, Cirone donated to the International Women's Media Foundation.[28]
Cirone's photograph of Morgan Freeman posing with his granddaughter E'Dena Hines (stabbed to death by her boyfriend), was featured on the front page of the New York Post August 17, 2015.
^"Bettina Cirone", Voter Registration Lists, Public Record Filings, Historical Residential Records, and Other Household Database Listings, U.S. Public Records Index
^"Dali Sighting"(PDF). The Salvador Dalí Collectors Bimonthly Journal. 24 (6). November–December 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
Bettina Cirone
Bettina Cirone video testimony, Voices of 9/11
