Peter Lindbergh, the influential fashion photographer who died on Tuesday at the age of 74, was a staunch critic of airbrushing and the selfie culture of today. Recognised as one of the most prolific photographers of his generation, Peter Lindbergh’s career spanned almost 50 years and saw him work with countless fashion designers, supermodels, internationally renowned magazines and royalty.

Celebrities pay tribute to Peter Lindbergh
His life was one spent capturing the personalities of women rather than the status symbol they embodied. “Most of the fashion-related media prefer to take away the identity and experiences of their protagonists – your poetry and all the small imperfections, the signs of your own life supposed to be there to tell your story – and replace it with senseless perfection,” Peter Lindbergh once said.

The news of Peter Lindbergh’s passing was announced on the photographer’s official Instagram account on Wednesday morning alongside one of his black and white photographs. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Lindbergh on September 3rd, 2019, at the age of 74,” the caption read. “He is survived by his wife Petra, his first wife Astrid, his four sons Benjamin, Jérémy, Simon, Joseph and seven grandchildren. He leaves a big void.”

Born in Lissa of Nazi-occupied Poland in 1944, Peter Lindbergh spent his childhood in Duisburg before working as a window dresser for a local department store and enrolling at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1960s. While his fellow students at the academy spent their time painting portraits, Peter Lindbergh flouted convention, instead choosing to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Vincent Van Gogh, by hitchhiking all the way to Arles, before temporarily relocating to Spain and North Africa.

Unlike much of the fashion photography of the time, which was often excessively retouched, Peter Lindbergh became known for his humanist approach through which he challenged and redefined traditional beauty standards by asking his models to wear little-to-no makeup and have “the guts” to be themselves. “This should be the responsibility of photographers today to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection,” he once said.

According to Lisa Lockwood, Peter Lindbergh’s work appeared to mark the beginning of the era of the celebrity supermodel while simultaneously redefining the image of the contemporary woman. “Peter Lindbergh’s photographs reflected the time we live in and were more about who the women were, as opposed to what they were wearing,” she reflects

“His images had a truthfulness to them and he seemed to have an affinity for the understated and non-glossy that permeated his work.”

This sentiment persisted through the years, culminating in his most recent cover for British Vogue which came out just last month. Peter Lindbergh was selected by Meghan Markle, who guest edited the September issue, to photograph 15 trailblazers, including Hollywood stars such as Salma Hayek and Jane Fonda, climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden.

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