ALI MAHDAVI’S CINEMATIC EYE
When artist Ali Mahdavi enters the room, people notice. The Iranian-born Parisian is known for the striking images he creates as a photographer, fine artist, filmmaker, fashion designer and artistic director of Dita Von Teese’s “Undressed to Kill” show at the Crazy Horse in Paris. And he applies those same skills to his own visage.
His skin, like Von Teese’s, is lily white and almost glows; his eyes are swept with dark shadow. He is completely hairless, which highlights his feline bone structure. He wears a small top hat, completing his head-to-toe black ensemble, and his face is swathed in fishnet veils. The effect is that of a man from another time, or perhaps another realm.
Mahdavi was in San Francisco for a few days over the summer (with friends fashion illustrator David Downton and 85-year-old model Carmen Dell’Orefice) for a special event at interior designer Ken Fulk’s loft, and to photograph jet-setter Denise Hale. With his hat tipped slightly over one eye, a hint of shade hovered over him, making him look like a character from a 1930s Josef von Sternberg film.
“I love Mr. von Sternberg!” Mahdavi exclaimed, in a voice that had a multilingual purr. The shadow-rich, carefully lit photography that Mahdavi is known for in his art, commercial and editorial work with Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Dom Perignon and Cartier, among others, is highly influenced by von Sternberg, the great cinematic Svengali to Marlene Dietrich. Mahdavi has mastered cinema tic lighting techniques so well that his photography requires very little post-production improvement, he says. A huge Dietrich fan, he explained the exact position of the key light she preferred to make her cheekbones look their best.
If the 42-year-old had to list an occupation, it would be “worshiping at the altar of beauty.” That’s why he creates in so many mediums. He credits his career to a love of women, an insatiable desire to create, and a chic mother who would bring him to Paris as a child from Tehran to see the
haute couture shows before his family fled permanently to Paris during the revolution.
The rest of Mahdavi’s trip to San Francisco, he said, was a blur. He had a simple wish for his last day: to enjoy a classic American diner breakfast.
He arrived at the Saint Francis Fountain in the Mission District in a black suit and cap on a Saturday morning among a throng of hungover hipsters. He pointed out the colors of tattoos peeking from under T-shirts, pretty couples on 24th Street — any vision of beauty, no matter how everyday, that entered his line of vision. He inhaled suddenly when he was led to the best table, next to the candy counter, where he bought 1980s collectible cards of Cyndi Lauper and Bo Derek. American breakfast and Bo Derek were the perfect way to spend his last day in San Francisco, Mahdavi said.
He chatted about his work photographing some of the most enigmatic artists of the last two decades, including Marilyn Manson, Naomi Watts, Asia Argento, Yohji Yamamoto, Karl Lagerfeld and Tilda Swinton. He loves the process of portrait sittings and making the connection with his subject through the lens.
Finally, it was getting late, and Mahdavi waited under the cool shade of the trees on 24th Street for his car. He become enamored of the city again after his visit, he said. He has a million projects waiting for him in Paris, but there’s always room for five or six more in San Francisco.
Getting into his car he blew a kiss, a gesture executed from the shadow of the backseat like a latter-day Dietrich.