SIR by Mario Testino. The evolution of male identity over the past three decades

Man in Focus: A gallery of men from photography’s maestro Mario Testino.
Mario Testino selects his finest male portraiture from the past thirty years.

Men’s changing role, style and appearance has never escaped Mario Testino’s eye and intuition. In his search to define the allure of men, the renowned Peruvian-born fashion photographer Mario Testino selected 300 photographs in “SIR“, his largest book to-date featuring an essay by art collector Pierre Borhan, an interview with creative polymath Patrick Kinmonth, and many previously unpublished works from Testino’s archive from the past thirty years.

“This book traces the evolution of male identity over the past three decades. Costume, tradition, gender play, portraiture, photojournalism, and fashion collide as Testino observes masculinity in all its modern manifestations: through the dandy and the gentleman, the macho and the fey, the world-famous face to the unknown passerby,” Taschen described the new book.

With Josh Hartnett for VMAN (2005), Testino evokes the fall of Helmut Berger in the abyss of Luchino Visconti’s The Damned. Studies of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jude Law and Colin Firth are as candid as they are curious. David Beckham, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards feature for the courage they have taken in redefining male identity.

The €500 edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies, each signed by the influential photographer, bound in Japanese cloth, and delivered in a metal slipcase.