First of all, let me tell you I may be a little biased with my review, because I love Mario Testino's work as it is. His photos of beautiful glamorous worlds and people living in them are always sleek, suave and well-polished, and they display -to my taste- a delicate sensitivity within image; both in reality and the 'make-belief'. You know: the whole smoke and mirrors thing, but it is obvious his smoke and mirrors have some magic in them. All the celebrities, models etc., or let's say his subjects, look like a million bucks, especially in this carefully edited book. Not that any of them are not gorgeous in real life, but they seem extra sublime if you will, and believe it or not, still 'human.' By risking to sound superficial, and shallow even, I daresay I love it. I appreciate to see so-called 'glamor' handled and manufactured in a way this sophisticated and tasteful.
'Let Me In' is a wonderful piece of high profile celebrity photo collection, which tends to catch its subjects in parties, social gatherings, or behind the scenes at fashion shoots or editorials. It is rough, time-to-time feels out of focus as a collection: more like a photo album of a photographer's 'work in progress' pile. Some photos were the ones that I had seen before here and there, but most are fresh from the oven. It may seem decidedly fame-obsessed to look at the photos of these actors and models that only display their general celebrity magnetism and magnificence, and one may ask what the difference is between this book and let's say some junk like the People magazine. And it is this: these photos do take joy in their pop culture value in a tongue-in-cheek way. They are loud, illuminated, skin-deep yet joyful. They do not take themselves so seriously, yet the book has no excuse about its existence other than it's demanding title: LET ME IN!
It is a naughty, almost forbidden, and intimate collection.
I love it. I love the roughness of the photos, how generous Testino is, and how wonderfully 'generic' most of the photos look. In a way, they are very much Warhol-ian, and in another way they are the direct opposite to what the 'celebrity' stood for in Warhol's world. It does not mean to say anything special. It is what Testino does best: beautiful people, a lot of skin and a surprising sense of intimacy. I highly recommend the book for anyone who appreciates the perception of a high fashion photographer on celebrity, and the slight obsession that we may all be in.