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(USA, 1956)
Sante D’Orazio is an American photographer celebrated for his iconic and sensual portraiture of celebrities, supermodels, and actresses. His work is often compared to that of Peter Lindbergh and Herb Ritts, with whom he shares an ability to merge elegance and intimacy while capturing the raw allure of his subjects. D’Orazio’s photographs are characterized by their overt sensuality, cinematic composition, and a unique balance between glamour and vulnerability.
His acclaimed book Sante D’Orazio: Barely Private (2009) offers an intimate glimpse behind the scenes of his career, chronicling private moments from 1997 to 2008 through a rich assemblage of negatives, Polaroids, magazine spreads, and handwritten notes. In reflecting on his practice, D’Orazio has explained: “My process of working is that I don’t create a picture, I find it.”
Born in Brooklyn, New York, D’Orazio originally studied painting at Brooklyn College before shifting his focus to photography. His entry into the world of fashion was catalyzed in 1981, when Andy Warhol invited him to contribute to Interview magazine—an opportunity that propelled him into the orbit of the most influential figures in fashion, art, and celebrity culture. Over the following decades, his work would appear in leading international publications and define an era of glamour photography.
D’Orazio’s images have been exhibited in prestigious institutions and galleries worldwide. Today, he continues to live and work in New York, where his photographs remain an influential force at the intersection of fine art, fashion, and popular culture.