>> Last night, 600 people — including Grace Coddington, Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, and Donatella Versace — gathered in New York to celebrate Mario Testino's illustrious career as part of the El Museo del Barrio gala. Kate Winslet, who presented Testino with an award, said of working with the photographer: “He’ll say, ‘It’s beeuuutiful, but I think it would be better naked, no?’ Quite frankly, how could one refuse? No matter what insecurities about oneself a subject may have, Mario makes them go away like a magician. One moment you are in the hair and makeup chair fully clothed and wishing you had smoother skin, longer legs and smaller feet and then Mario comes in and in that charming way he takes you by the hand and says, 'Don't worry it's going to be amazing.'"
Carine Roitfeld, meanwhile, said of collaborating with Testino: "What I love about him I can tell him anything and that is very rare with a photographer. If I don't like these shoes, or I don't like this picture I can tell him. It is his complicity . . . to be able to say what you want to someone. I just finished a book about my work so far and 80 percent of it is with Mario."
Testino, meanwhile, credited his career to Anna Wintour: “Long ago she decided I was a good photographer.” As for his favorite photographic subject, he replied: "It would have to be Princess Diana, it took my career to another level. Top five? Kate Moss has been one of my favourites for a long time. I have worked a lot with her. I think I have managed to document her through the 20 years that we have worked together. But there are many people like that: Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, it is hard to pick just one."

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