In November 2022, my photographic partner Iango Henzi and I were preparing a special piece on Madonna for Vanity Fair Europe. She had a world tour coming up and we wanted to do something artistic and interesting, something with meaning. Originally we considered a re-imagining of The Last Supper but with just Madonna all alone. We wanted to go further, though. For every shoot we work on, we start with a reference then research, develop and evolve. Working with Madonna, we give her references, a plan, and she will come back and say: “What about doing it this way?” It’s an exchange. We always want to examine the meaning of a picture – what emotion it evokes and what it says.
The references from paintings, including those by Botticelli, came in later. We asked Madonna and some of the other women to dye their hair for the shoot because we wanted rich red Botticelli tones. There is also a reference to La Grande Bouffe, a French movie from the 1970s. We wanted the feeling of decadence, a huge feast. Madonna is generally involved in casting decisions but here she trusted me and Iango. We were searching for people whose faces were reminiscent of paintings by old masters, but we also wanted to be very inclusive. All the people in the picture are women but we wanted every kind of woman, including transgender women.
