BRITNEY: THEN AND NOW
NO LONGER A GIRL, ALWAYS AN ICON
EXCLUSIVE PORTFOLIO
BY MARK LIDDELL
Back in 2000, photographer Mark Liddell took one look at the pretty, smiling teen star Britney Spears and put her in a tight rock-n-roll T-shirt and leather jeans. Now she's an icon, and Liddell is still shooting her.
BRITNEY THEN AND NOW
She's no longer a girl, way past just being a pop star. She's an icon, and Mark Liddell has been photographing her from the beginning.
Mark Liddell first met Britney Spears in 2000, which was, like, another era, if you're measuring in pop culture years. The newly minted superstar, 19 at the time, had come to the Smashbox studio in Los Angeles to shot a cover for the teen magazine Cosmo Girl. "The magazine wanted to make her look very young and sweet," recalls Liddell. "But after ten minutes with Britney, I knew I had to shoot her another way." After getting the shot the magazine wanted, Liddell had Britney retooled in a tight yellow rock-and-roll T-shirt and leather jeans, ditched his romantic softbox lighting in favor of a hard, sexy ring flash, and a different Britney emerged - a very powerful one.
"We just clicked," says Liddell. "I never treated her as a girl, and I think she respected me for that." That shoot in 2000 was, in fact, just the beginning of what has been an unusual and productive relationship between the photographer and Spears, whom he fondly refers to as "My Favorite Blond." So far Liddell has photographed ten Britney magazine covers (Jane, InStyle, Glamour, Arena and Seventeen, among them) part of the 2003 Britney calendar, and various advertising and merchandising campaigns.
Liddell, whose work is syndicated by the Los Angeles-based agency Icon International, started his career as a London-based fashion photographer. Since moving to L.A. he shot the likes of Tom Cruise, Meg Ryan, and Charlize Theron. (See his Website, markliddell.com) He says there are moments when being a celebrity photographer requires the skill of a therapist as much as technical expertise or artistic vision. But not with his favorite subject, who he's seen change from toothy adolescent to teen sexpot to fashion plate. "Britney's essentially the same as she's ever been - more confident and more stylish," Liddell says, "but she's not spoiled. She's always known who she is." And that, obviously, is an icon. - Jeffery Elbies