Mark Borthwick photographs 100 personalities for Vogue Italia’s September 2020 covers!
Piergiorgio Del Moro and Samuel Ellis Scheinman were the casting directors for the issue where they cast various top names from the modelling industry and actors such as Bethann Hardison, Indya Moore, Denali White Elk, Giannie Couji, Ugbad Abdi, Xiao Wen Ju, Kaia Gerber, Cameron Russell, Irina Shayk, Ajani, Precious Lee, Emily Miller, Anisa Dagher, Talia Ryder, Chippewajane, Cindy Crawford, Alek Wek, Donna Jordan, Ash Foo, Lexi Boling, Raquel Zimmermann, Varsha Thapa, Binx Walton, Beatrice Galilee, Adesuwa Aighewi, Vineeta Kumari Seshasai, Kai Avent deLeon, Benzo, Abby Champion, Ariel Nicholson, Dominique Duroseau, Pat Cleveland, Tschabalala Self, Soo Joo Park, Akon Adichol, Munaiya B, Julia Nobis, Meghan Collison, Gray Sorrenti, and Bella Hadid to name a few. They also featured people with interesting stories, talented people in the most diverse fields, icons of the past, and people who have nothing to do with fashion, of all ages for the front-page images.
“At times like these human beings can do one of two things: shut up or shout. Last April, when we decided to leave our cover white, we were convinced that silence was the right message of respect and reserve” says Vogue Italia’s Editor-in-Chief Emanuele Farneti. “Now, instead, with the onset of a new season that will in many ways be crucial, we think this is the moment to raise our voices and talk about hope and beauty. For the first time, we have shot and printed 100 covers. Each of them is dedicated to an individual protagonist. It is the portrait of a community that, having waited diligently, now finds itself making a fresh start”.
The creative director Ferdinando Verderi, who conceived the project, explains the process: “Almost a performance lasting days, with its succession of photo shoots and its artistic essentiality. The idea is very simple: more is more.” tells Verderi. “A challenge to the canons of quantity with which fashion has always measured itself. A celebration of diversity and uniqueness, a desire for rebirth that, once printed, becomes a collective experience. We shot the 100 cover stars individually in a simple studio in NY with Mark Borthwick, the historic Vogue Italia figure who returns after decades. We then asked each of them to tell us the story of their life in a minute. A project that aims to become a document of our times”. (source)
Click the link to view last year covers with Adut Akech and Vilma Sjoberg, here to view 2018 cover featuring Vittoria Ceretti, Saskia de Brauw and Guinevere Van Seenus, here to view 2017 covers featuring Vittoria Ceretti, Lily Aldridge, Federico Spinas, Mariacarla Boscono, Othilia Simon, and Saskia De Brauw, here to view 2016 covers featuring Lulu, Kiki Willems, Frederikke Sofie and Bella Hadid, here to view 2015 cover featuring Lexi Boling, here to view 2014 cover featuring multiple models, here to view 2013 cover featuring Doutzen Kroes, here to view 2012 cover featuring Carolyn Murphy, here to view 2011 cover featuring Stella Tennant, here for 2010 cover with Miranda Kerr, and here for 2009 cover with Sasha Pivovarova, Ash Stymest, Jamie Bochert, Christian Brylle, Max Rogers, Anna Jagodzinska and Will Lewis.