Fashion photographer Markus Klinko has spent more than 30 years behind the camera, continuing to push boundaries with his compositional techniques that highlight the unique features of his celebrity subjects. From his imagination, a 2019 photo of singer-songwriter Billy Eilish was sandwiched between her own expressive overlap and a 2023 image of New York City rapper ice spice surrounded by a tub surrounded by a richness of orange elements designed to accentuate her ginger curls.
It took a while, but throughout Crinko’s long career, notable figures began to appear in his photo gallery, distinguished by visible tattoos. A step-by-step photo of Mötley Crüe’s legendary drummer Tommy Lee spreads out on a desk with tattoo sleeves on a full display, contrasting nicely with a profile shot of Guardian Angel pieces on the right side of Pharrell Williams’ neck. There is even a conceptual image of Klinko’s modern David Lachapelle, lying within a ffin with the camera placed in the middle of his tattooed hand.
Gaga/Photographed by Clinco
Waves/David Bowie
Erpent/ Daphne Guinness
These photos show an increasing trend of seeing influential creatives across all markets in the entertainment industry. It’s upwards raising a fair question: is there any chance that Klinko’s name will appear in the tattoo artist’s digital appointment book anytime soon?
“No,” replied to Crinko without hesitation during the Zoom interview. “It’s not something I’m attracted to myself… I like simplicity…but I really like the tattoos of my subjects. I think it adds to the dramatic effect of a person’s appearance and personality. It plays a role in styling choices.
Interestingly, Clinko’s most famous photography sessions of all time directly inspired the biggest tattoo work he ever filmed in a film. The incidents have occurred decades apart from each other and are now forever linked by his behind-the-scenes.
In 1994, darkroom processes were standard industry practices in post-production, but Crinko bypassed traditional methods of achieving museum-quality images by digitizing film negatives with drum scanners. At the beginning of Klinko’s career, he gained exclusive access to post-high-end post-production facilities through his relationship with a wealthy person who placed resources behind him after recognizing the enterprising potential of his art.
As his profession gradually evolved from analog to digital, Crinko was able to run his imagination, not being bound by the early restrictions of SGI workstations. He adopted the principles of automation before software programs like Photoshop 3.0 became widely popular, and high-resolution shots of celebrity subjects were enhanced with a colorful approach to image overlays and split toning, curating a signature style that added perception of depth to his background.
In the process, he intrigued the interest of the late David Bowie, a rock/pop icon and one of his first celebrity admirers. Their shared interest in turning controversy into creative activities produced iconic photography in the early 2000s. There, Klinko pulled out all the stops and adopted the newborn baby as visual elements, multiple body doubles, digital face replacements, and more.
Ironically, it was Bowie who first proposed that Crinko experiment by adding olderness to his photographs and stripping away the key elements that made his project so unique as the rising star of fashion photography. It happened in the fall of 2001 after a pre-scheduled shoot date was postponed multiple times due to 9/11. When Bowie finally arrived at Clinco’s studio in New York, he brought him an unprecedented request.
“Bowie especially wanted me to do black and white (photos),” Clinko said. “I asked him about it and said, ‘Why did you choose to shoot me a black and white album cover?” I said, “Did you realize I wouldn’t do that?” And he said, “Yes, that’s exactly why you’re asking you, because I think it will grab your creative attention. And he was right, it opened the door for me at my mental limits.
The shots that Klinko then snapped on the Transformative Photo Show to support the release of Bowie’s “Heathen” album were taken over with new additions, where other celebrity subjects such as Outkast, Keanu Reeves, Carmen Electra and Jason Statham were captured using similar branded Raw Monechrome photos. But generally, Clinko reserves many of the avant-garde ideas for organizing colorful works of art in the studio and filming locations where he filmed editorial shoots and album covers.
During the rise of Klinko in the early 2000s, album covers were an important part of the marketing strategy behind musicians signed to major record labels. With apps like Instagram and Spotify about six to seven years away from having a major impact on fan engagement, the music industry has typically relied heavily on hard copies of album covers, which include corresponding artwork booklets and decorative promotional photos. Next, I saw firsthand that the collection of recording artists who came and went in and out of Klinko’s camera frames is the subject of creation from the major artists on the other side of the curtain.
Within five years, the former musician, once signed to EMI Classics, has tailored a series of photogenic themes to support albums such as “Elephunk” by Black Eyed Peas, “Dancersedly in Love” by Beyoncé and “The Exedipation of Mimi.” The latter two became one of the bestselling LPs of the 21st century, revealing that when the basic stages of the marketing plan for upcoming album releases called for an initiation of the important “Culling” process, Klinko knew he would hand-picked the final cut of hundreds of options.
“I have a very strong opinion on the best,” Clinko said. “Usually, my selection process is very narrow. For the most part, I feel very strongly about ‘This is the shot.’ So I’ll try a lot to convince them. This isn’t necessarily used to throwing these huge amounts of possibilities.
The reputation of the Swiss people, which was highly acclaimed by the eyes of the keen photographer, was not lost to actor Joe Manganiello. Joe Manganiello called Clinco “the person who ever filmed his favorite David Bowie shot.”
Klinko won the outstanding photo award at the 2024 Hollywood Beauty Awards in the evening, with the two sitting next to each other discussing face-to-face photography. They decided to bounce ideas off each other throughout the spring and recreate Bowie’s filming. Manganiero was a project I wanted to do after playing Werewolf on the HBO series “True Blood.”
Before filming with Clinco, the “Deal Island or No Deal Island” host was Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Small Paul finished off an elaborate Japanese-style tattoo that covered his arms and chest, a two-year project. The gorgeous tattoos gave Crinko more elements to increase her creativity.
“He’s clearly a very physical personality. He’s a huge guy. I’m 6 feet 4 and I always thought myself very tall and generally the tallest in the room, but when I met Joe, this guy was almost 6 feet 6 and he was twice as wide as me. He was full of muscles. “I felt like the toothpick next to him… I think the tattoo just strengthens all of that. So I think the whole concept was fascinatingly inspired by the complete look, including the tattoo.”
The result was an attractive conceptual photograph by klinko, whom he dubbed “Return.” In this photo, Crinko used a small amount of sunlight as a backlight to illuminate Manganiello’s sturdy physique and body ink. Using CGI, he added a pair of robot wolves, a homage to Bowie.
