E llen von Unwerth’s photography career began after her boyfriend gave her a camera for her birthday and a quick lesson in how to use its two buttons. She started taking pictures of her friends, who conveniently happened to be models (von Unwerth had been modelling for ten years). Her photographic prowess took her friends, and her, by surprise.
“It was a talent I had that I could have totally walked past,” she says over the phone from Mexico, where she is attending a wedding. Von Unwerth, who grew up in Bavaria, realised that her true place was behind the camera. She had had fun in front of it, but now it was time to give the world what it really needed — photographs of models throwing spaghetti over each other, or in a bathtub of pearls, or even barbecuing in high heels.
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