The Daily Mail reports that Mario Testino has spoken up about launching Gisele Bundchen’s career, saying that no one ‘wanted’ or ‘liked’ Bundchen when she first started out as a model. He reportedly told the Observer, “Nobody liked her, nobody wanted her. I had to fight to get her into my stories because nobody thought she was right – too this, too that, the nose, the breasts, the waist. But I believe in being obsessed, in getting obsessed.”
Of course, while he may have definitely launched Bundchen, it was her natural modeling ability and her relationship with Leonardo Dicaprio that really launched her into the stratosphere.
Testino also talks about having difficulty growing up in Lima, Peru, saying, “They screamed at me in the street: “F-ggot,” All my allowance went on taxi fares. I couldn’t take public transport the way I dressed.”
Testino is now one of the world’s most famous and iconic photographers, with his pictures appearing everywhere from Vanity Fair to Vogue. Testino, who is now 57 years old, was one of the first to really ‘spot’ Bundchen and give her the first big breaks. Testino has also become incredibly prolific over the past couple of years, having shot everyone from Prince William to his mother, Princess Diana. He was also personally handpicked to shoot Will and Kate’s royal engagement pictures.
