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IMAGEMINDS OF OUR NOVEMBER SHAPERS MAKERS:ICON COVER CREATORS INSIDE THE MARKUS+INDRANI T his month's PaperCity features the indelible imagery of Markus + Indrani, the celebrityand-fashionphotography duo whose portrait of international style icon Daphne Guinness graces our November cover. The global, New York–based power couple — Swiss-born Markus Klinko and Indianborn Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri — have collaborated for almost two decades. Like Helmut Newton, a talent they admire, they've infiltrated the fine art world and now the kingdom of cinema. This fall, they celebrate the launch of their first photography book, fittingly titled Icons, with a public art exhibition opening Wednesday, November 7, at New York's Lincoln Center — as well as the release of a short film on the remarkable Miz Guinness, The Legend of Lady White Snake. Their awardwinning photography has appeared on unforgettable album covers, from Beyoncé and David Bowie to Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey; in ad campaigns for Pepsi, Nike, L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme and De Beers; on the covers and pages of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and The New York Times; and in more than 20 exhibitions worldwide. Hempel Design's Steven Hempel sits down with the image-makers to probe two talents at the intersection of art, fashion, fame and photography. MARKUS KLINKO The book cover Arielle Kebbel, 2005 Markus Klinko, Kate Winslet, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri Markus and Indrani on set in L.A., filming and shooting stills, June 2011 The shoot. Our approach has changed; I believe the changes are reflective of the changes in me. When I began, I was overzealous. I had a lot to prove. We constructed large sets with lots of equipment. We had more people involved in the shoots. Now we work smaller, the shoots are carefully planned, but there is more room for spontaneity in the process. It keeps us open to new opportunities and better able to take advantage of things that larger, more involved shoots are unable to do. We used to depend much more on technical tools; this is not the case now. Jennifer Lopez, 2006 Keanu Reeves, 2002 In the beginning. I grew up in Switzerland, studied in Paris and was a classically trained harpist. I actually lived in Dallas for a short period in the late 1980s, around 1987/1988. I have fond memories of Texas; it was a wonderful place to live. The work. I admire the photography of Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts. They produced celebrity photography with a classic aesthetic that is really visually driven. For me, I want to produce work that has an "iconic" effect. To create images that show the emotional connection between the camera and the subject. To convey the force and strength in the people I shoot and capture the magic inside them. To forget about everything else and just create an image that captures the moment. How you traded the harp for the camera. It's something I decided I would do based strictly on faith. After a hand injury forced me to abandon my music career, I decided to become a photographer at age 33. I just decided to do it. I wasn't scared, but rather 100 percent committed to it. I hadn't really led a normal life and perhaps had become a bit spoiled because of the success of my music career. So it was all a bit eye-opening. Suddenly I was one photographer among millions, where I had become used to being catered to, driven to events, being photographed. I believe it was something that was good for me. The big break. Really, it was three or four things that happened all around the same time. In early 2000, Isabella Blow asked us to shoot several covers for the London Sunday Times. Around the same time, Interview Magazine asked us to begin shooting celebrities for them. We were then asked by Iman to shoot the cover of her book, which was a tremendous honor. David Bowie liked the work so much he asked us to shoot the cover for his album Heathen, which became very successful. We then did the shoot for GQ's Man of the Year and were asked to shoot for L'Oréal Paris, all in a short period of time. These events really conspired to launch our career and form the core of the material in Icons. Another true milestone was the album cover for Beyoncé's debut album, Dangerously in Love, in early 2003. Destiny and Indrani. Perhaps … It was really all by chance. Indrani was a successful model that really would have never photographed with me at the time. But I happened to be there in the right place at the right Katie Holmes, 2005 NOVEMBER | PAGE 20 | 2012