mario testino

>> 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."

Mario Testino was the guest of honor last night at a gala thrown by the Latin American museum El Museo de Barrio at NYC's Cipriani restaurant. Kate Winslet, who just worked with Mario on a new round of ads for Lancôme, introduced the photographer and presented him with a silver Asprey tray that had been signed by friends like Sienna Miller, Julia Roberts, and Demi Moore. The Narciso Rodriguez-clad actress started with a joke, saying, "The two other Kates, Kate Moss and Kate Middleton, were unavailable so you have to make do with me." Mario, who confessed that his favorite person he ever worked with was Princess Diana, spoke for the first time about lensing Prince William and Kate Middleton's engagement pictures. He said of the shoot, "You know, it's not so much what they say to each other because there is no time. Everything is compacted into a very short time because we have to produce these pictures. It's more like me screaming and trying to get everything to go — well, not screaming, but getting in a fluster, I guess you say . . . They are a young couple in love." Affection was in the air for John Legend and Chrissy Teigen as well as fellow attendee Josh Hartnett, who hung out with his girlfriend, Sophia Lie, when he wasn't catching up with fashion heavyweights like Anna Wintour and Donatella Versace.

>> Kate Moss's nude cover for Vogue Brazil's 36th anniversary May 2011 issue made the rounds a couple of weeks ago, but now the rest of her steamy, almost-60-page-strong spread for the magazine, shot by Mario Testino, has also surfaced. A few highlights, in the gallery.

Kate Moss revealed her derriere and her strategically placed wing tattoos on the cover of May's Brazilian Vogue. The sexy image and accompanying spread were shot by Mario Testino, a longtime confidant and collaborator of the 37-year-old supermodel, during a trip the pair took to Sao Paulo two months ago. The renowned photographer has lots of famous friends — he also snapped Kate Middleton and Prince William's engagement pictures and was a guest at this morning's royal wedding! Mario may have yet another set of high-profile nuptials to capture on film soon. Kate is rumored to be tying the knot with her longtime boyfriend, The Kills frontman Jamie Hince, this Summer.

>> A little over an hour and we might get a first glimpse at Kate Middleton's wedding gown, but in the meantime, the guest arrivals have started. Among them so far: David Beckham in Ralph Lauren Purple Label (and top hat!) and a pregnant Victoria Beckham in a midnight blue dress of her own design with a Philip Treacy hat — speaking of, Treacy is outfitting 36 guests in total; official engagement portrait photographer Mario Testino — who reportedly had his camera confiscated; and Prince Harry's on/off girlfriend Chelsy Davy in a boatnecked emerald Alberta Ferretti dress. Expect to see lots of hats, fascinators and dresses with sleeves — exposing shoulders and heads in a sacred house of worship like Westminster Abbey, where the wedding ceremony is taking place, is considered improper.

The gallery will be updated as photos come in.