Markus Klinko

Career

Markus Klinko is an American pho­tog­ra­pher and film direc­tor renowned for his fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy and celebrity por­traits.
Throughout his career, he has pho­tographed some of the world’s most rec­og­niz­able fig­ures in music, film, and fash­ion, includ­ing Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, David Bowie, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell, and Iman.

Visual Style

Among Klinko’s edi­to­r­ial clients are GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and Interview Magazine. His com­mer­cial com­mis­sions include cam­paigns for Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Nike, Hugo Boss, Anna Sui, Pepsi, Skyy Vodka, and Rémy Martin. His Keep A Child Alive cam­paign raised more than one mil­lion dol­lars for chil­dren affected by AIDS in just three days.
Born in Switzerland in 1960 to a fam­ily of French, Italian, and Hungarian her­itage, Markus Klinko orig­i­nally trained as a clas­si­cal harpist. He stud­ied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris before sign­ing exclu­sive record­ing agree­ments with EMI Classics and Columbia Artists Management. He was awarded the pres­ti­gious Grand Prix du Disque along­side mem­bers of the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris. 

Major Series and Works

After suf­fer­ing a hand injury that ended his per­form­ing career, Klinko turned to fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy. He soon met the dig­i­tal artist Indrani, who became his long-​time cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tor. His work was dis­cov­ered by Isabella Blow of the Sunday Times, lead­ing to edi­to­r­ial com­mis­sions and the begin­ning of his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Interview Magazine. During this period, he cre­ated the cover pho­tog­ra­phy for Iman’s book I Am Iman and David Bowie’s iconic album Heathen.

Recognition

Markus Klinko has cre­ated some of the most iconic album cov­ers of the mod­ern era, includ­ing Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love and Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi.
He is also the author of Icons (Perseus), a col­lec­tion of his most cel­e­brated pho­tographs. The Lincoln Center in New York pre­sented a major exhi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing works from the pub­li­ca­tion, and his pho­tographs have since been exhib­ited in muse­ums and gal­leries across Europe, includ­ing Opera Gallery Monaco, and in the United States, notably at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Reading the Work

Markus Klinko’s work is defined by a glam­orous, pop-​inspired, and metic­u­lously pro­duced aes­thetic in which light­ing, pose, and art direc­tion com­bine to cre­ate con­tem­po­rary icons. His pho­tog­ra­phy is imme­di­ately rec­og­niz­able through its pol­ished visual lan­guage, tech­ni­cal pre­ci­sion, and strong con­nec­tion to con­tem­po­rary pop­u­lar cul­ture. His images reward close view­ing, where sub­tle choices of com­po­si­tion, light­ing, tex­ture, and the rela­tion­ship between pho­tog­ra­pher and sub­ject reveal a sophis­ti­ca­tion that extends beyond their imme­di­ate visual impact.