Francesco Scavullo (January 16, 1921 – January 6, 2004) was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.
Scavullo was born January 16, 1921, on Staten Island, New York City. He used his father's camera to photograph his sisters, who would model for him. He began working [when?] for a studio that produced fashion catalogs and soon moved to Vogue. Scavullo spent three years as Horst P. Horst's assistant, studying Horst's techniques.[1] He created a cover for Seventeen in 1948 that won him a contract with the magazine. Scavullo soon opened his own studio in Manhattan,[2] and was married to model Carol McCallson from 1952 to 1955.[3]
Good Housekeeping cover from July 1967 with photo of Alana Collins (later Alana Stewart) by Scavullo
Scavullo's 1969 photograph of singer Janis Joplin with a cigarette in her hand was exhibited at the Amon Carter MuseuminFort Worth, Texas. The museum poster refers to Joplin, who died in 1970, as having a "free-spirited fervor of the counterculture revolution."[4]
Some of Scavullo's more controversial work included a Cosmospolitan centerfold of a nude Burt Reynolds and photographs of a young Brooke Shields that some[who?] considered overly sexual. He also befriended a young teenager from Philadelphia, future supermodel Gia Carangi, whose career he was largely responsible for launching.[citation needed] When Carangi's heroin addiction made it impossible for her to find work later, Scavullo continued to employ and support her until her eventual death from complications of AIDS.[2] Scavullo himself was diagnosed as manic-depressive.[3]
Scavullo's work has been used on the covers of Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Interview, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. He published several books, from Scavullo on Beauty (1976) to Scavullo Nudes (2000).[3]
Scavullo died on January 6, 2004 (ten days before his 83rd birthday) of heart failure at the age of 82 while on his way to a New York photo shoot with a then up-and-coming CNN news anchor, Anderson Cooper.[6] Scavullo was survived by his partner in life and art, Sean Byrnes.
