Photographer’s natural fashion shots helped herald the age of the supermodel

Peter Lindbergh, who has died aged 74, brought a sense of realism to fashion photography, shooting his subjects in largely unretouched black and white, with little makeup, and in poses that dispensed with excessive artifice; he detested what he referred to as the drive for ‘‘senseless perfection’’.

It was an approach that endeared him to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and one of his last assignments was working with her when she guest-edited the September edition of Vogue. The issue, which celebrated ‘‘forces for change’’, included campaigning actresses such as Salma Hayek and Jane Fonda, as well as the environmental activist Greta

Thunberg and

New Zealand

Prime Minister

Jacinda

Ardern, all photographed by Lindbergh.

It was with Vogue that he had forged his global reputation: his January 1990 cover shot on the streets of Lower Manhattan featuring Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Tatjana Patitz heralded the era of the supermodel.

In 2017 he reflected: ‘‘When people ask me if the supermodels can happen again, I always say no. Women are liberated now, freed from what they had to be, all perfect earrings and perfect makeup.’’

He was born Peter Brodbeck in Germanoccupied Poland, but was brought up on his uncle’s sheep farm overlooking the steel town of Duisburg in Germany. Handball was his first passion, then after leaving school at 15 he worked as a department-store windowdresser. Following military service he attended the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts.

He was a fan of German expressionist films, but his principal artistic inspiration came from Holland, where the family went on holidays. ‘‘I preferred actively seeking out Van Gogh’s inspirations, my idol, rather than painting the mandatory portraits and landscapes taught in art schools,’’ he recalled.

He spent a year in Arles, a town closely associated with Van Gogh, before hitchhiking his way around Spain and North Africa. He returned to Germany, and had his first exhibition in 1969.

His brother, however, told him his work was boring and, when a job as a photographer’s assistant came up, he took it. Moving to Dusseldorf, he changed his name to Lindbergh after hearing of a photographer called Brodbeck.

He worked mainly for Stern magazine, and within a few years was Germany’s highestpaid advertising photographer. With his reputation spreading, he then moved to Paris.

He did much early work for the Japanese fashion house Comme des Garcons, with brooding models and a grainy aesthetic. His rise was boosted by his lack of ego – a quality not always found in star photographers. The supermodel Nadja Auermann described him