Testino Exhibit Brings True Style To The MFA

Glistening with glamor and shimmering with splendor, the new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), In Your Face, highlights the brilliantly ostentatious career of illustrious fashion photographer Mario Testino. The exhibit is delightfully imposing, including 122 captivating, grandiose prints—some of which are a monumental eight feet tall. Featured in magazines such as Vogue, VMAN, Vanity Fair, and now at the MFA, Testino’s work undoubtedly blends the distinction between commercialism and art, but what is more, it does so with such delicate subtlety that viewers will inevitably forget that there ever was a difference at all.

A large, collaged TV screen of 16 squares greets visitors upon their entrance into the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery, where In Your Face is being displayed. Looping for a minute and a half, the video “invites you into Testino’s own world”—with intimate clips of his models fawning over his talent—making viewers feel as if they are “stepping into the pages of one of today’s great fashion magazines.” On the vividly painted cerulean walls of the exhibition is a brief introduction that elucidates upon both the artist’s Peruvian history and his unique photographic techniques.

Testino’s style is characterized by provocative contrasts and alluring juxtapositions. As evidenced throughout In Your Face, his images masterfully experiment with the blatant disparities between light and dark, black and white and color, fashion and nudity,