When renowned photographer Markus Klinko met Beyoncé in 2000 during a magazine photo shoot, he knew she was going to be a star. At the time, Klinko was booked to shoot Destiny’s Child, the popular girl group composed of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. While each member brought their own star power and energy to the table, Klinko tells Complex that he was instantly drawn to Beyoncé.
“They were laying on the floor, and I had pointed out to [Beyoncé’s] mom, and I said, ‘The one in the middle there, I think she's going to be huge. She has a ton of charisma,’” Klinko recalls of their first interaction.
Fast-forward to three years later, Klinko was commissioned by Sony Music to shoot Beyoncé again for her forthcoming debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. From the moment Klinko clicked the shutter on his camera, he says he knew he had captured lightning in a bottle. “I knew it was a big moment. I told her, I said, ‘We got the cover,’” he adds. The shoot would ultimately produce the iconic image of Beyoncé glancing over her shoulder wearing a Swarovski crystal shawl and distressed denim jeans. It is easily one of the most iconic images of the global star, even 20 years later.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Beyoncé's debut album (released on June 24, 2003), Klinko joined forces with Rolls Royce to curate exhibitions across the country. The exhibition kicked off in February in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston, Texas, and will run in major cities through July. This showcase not only features mesmerizing photographs from his shoot with Beyoncé, but also highlights a collection of iconic images captured throughout Klinko's illustrious career.
While Klinko is renowned for his iconic work on the Dangerously in Love shoot, he has forged a distinguished career in entertainment and fashion. The Switzerland-born artist originally pursued a music career as a classical harpist, recording and touring globally, before a hand injury disrupted his musical journey. In 1994 he had an epiphany and decided to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a fashion photographer. Despite lacking prior experience, he delved into photography and achieved remarkable success. Throughout his career, Klinko has captured unforgettable images of David Bowie, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, and most recently, Ice Spice. Klinko spoke to Complex over the phone and shed light on the behind the scenes details of the Dangerously In Love photo shoot, his ongoing exhibition, and his collaborations with Beyoncé, Ice Spice, and others.
How did you first meet Beyoncé?
Around 2000, I met a group called Destiny's Child. That's where it all started. Vibe Magazine commissioned me to shoot them. I had no idea who they were. They were laying on the floor, and I had pointed out to [Beyoncé’s] mom, and I said, “The one in the middle there, I think she's going to be huge. She has a ton of charisma.” Her mom told me, “Yes, we know.” It was just like that type of funny memory now at this point. Fast-forward to 2003, I got a call from Sony Music and it said, “Beyoncé is going solo. She requested you to shoot her album cover. She had worked with you in the 2000s. She really loved that experience, and she wanted you to shoot her album cover.” That was 20 years ago.
Can you take me back to the day of the shoot. What are some moments that stuck out while shooting looks for Dangerously in Love?
It's a fun little story. When I talked to Beyoncé right before the shoot, she had referenced an ad campaign that I had done with Laetitia Casta, the famous model, and now French actress, where Laetitia was trapped in a diamond spider web. It was an advertising campaign for a diamond company called Diamond.com. This was at the beginning of the internet and one of the first places where you could buy diamonds.
Beyoncé had seen that; it was running in older Vogues and billboards. She said she loved that campaign, and she was wondering if I could do something like that, but smaller on her. On the call, I was like, “Okay, noted. Let's see what we can do.” As they arrived, I saw in the styling section, that there was a diamond top, and I felt that was perfect. I told Beyoncé we can use that. She said, “Oh, no, I don't want to wear it because all we have is these red carpet looking skirts, and I don't want my album to look like a red carpet thing.” I said, “I have a much better idea. We should pair it with denim. There'll be an interesting juxtaposition.” She goes, “No, we don’t have any denim. That would be great, but we don't have any, so I don't want to use it.”
I said, “Perhaps you could wear mine.” I was wearing these Dolce and Gabbana men's jeans that I've been wearing ever since the late ‘90s to this day. That's just what I like, what fits me. She said, “Oh, cool, that could work.” I estimated that maybe my size could fit her. My joke is I have Beyoncé's butt, because she did fit them perfectly, as you can see on the cover. Luckily I had another pair around and I gave her mine. I wasn't running around without pants, but that's what created this iconic 2000s defining image, that juxtaposition of this Swarovski crystal diamond top with the D&G distressed. Of course, that shoot yielded a lot of other great images. I love some of these other looks that we did, where she's laying down on the white stones that are underlit. I had a plexiglass floor and underlit that in a yellow dress. She was coincidentally wearing a Dolce and Gabbana dress that was this white, which also became a very famous Pepsi campaign later. It was a very rich day that yielded a lot of awesome images.
You said when you shot her with Destiny’s Child, you knew she was a star. What was your impression of her during the DIL photo when she was on the brink of starting her solo career?
It was always easy working with Beyoncé because Beyoncé's extremely intelligent. And not only is she intelligent; she has a natural instinct for posing and lighting. She has a good sense where the light and the camera angles are and all of that stuff. What I would say that I am specifically proud of is that in 2003, Beyoncé was not the Beyoncé that we know now. She was a young girl. She was coming out of a group. She was not the number one biggest pop star in the world. I feel that I managed to create the vision with this cover of who she was about to become over the next few years. I feel like that album cover shoot predicted that Beyoncé was a superstar. She became that eventually within a short time. I think that I was able to capture her in a way that others didn't, because a couple months after Dangerously in Love was published, I got a call from L'Oréal Paris, who had just signed her up for an exclusive contract. They said they tried shooting her several times, but they couldn't make her look the way she looks on the album cover. They offered me a very nice deal where I was starting to shoot for them—not just Beyoncé, but a lot of their stars.
What are some other things about the shoots and images that people may not know?
The Beyoncé cover image is actually at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington in the permanent collection. That's maybe an interesting thing for you to mention.
What other artists have you enjoyed shooting during your career so far?
My work with Mariah Carey has been equally successful. In 2005 I was asked by Mariah to shoot the cover of The Emancipation of Mimi, which became her most successful album of her career. I love that moment. Mariah Carey, the transformation to Mimi was an important opportunity for me, because Mariah came out of a very bad time. The Glitter album had completely tanked her career. She was not in a good place, and it was critical for her to have an enormous comeback with Mimi, which, of course, the music itself would've done that, but I think the image helped.
I have a number of these sorts of milestones in pop culture. What else? It's like when you ask a mother that has nine children, which is your favorite child? Of course, they're standout shoots, Beyoncé, David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez. Those are all standout shoots to me. Keanu Reeves. It's clear that now in hindsight, as some of these shoots have proven to be so successful in being collected and all of that, that they have, in my mind, sort of become the favorite. I would say every shoot I've done with Beyoncé I cherish. With Dangerously in Love, I remember it as if it was 15 seconds ago. When she eventually stepped on set with the diamond top and my denims, and she threw her arms up, and I clicked the shutter, I knew it was a big moment. I told her, I said, “We got the cover.”
Then the images of David Bowie smoking, I love those. Lady Gaga as Hello Kitty, I knew that that would be probably forever an image that people will remember, especially because it was not just a part of her album art, but it was also the 35th anniversary of Hello Kitty.
Who are some recent artists that you enjoyed working with?
I did love working with Billie Eilish. It was very interesting. I shot her for Vogue, and I told Billie something that was really true, that she reminded me a bit of David Bowie. She had a bit of the energy of David Bowie in her own way. She was very excited about that. She started jumping up and down, and she called out to her mom, who was also on set, coincidentally, and she said, “Mom, Mom. He said I reminded him of David Bowie,” which was very cute. This was a couple of years ago, so she was a little younger than now and before her blonde phase.
Why is this sort of music photography still so important despite the industry moving away from physical albums?
I think we are now continuing to see the importance. I think advertising companies, brands, and even magazines are starting to see that Instagram-type photography, that kind of low-key, lo-fi work only goes so far in the end. There is a return to what I would call technical photography that's lit in a much more elaborate way, that is not just a snapshot, that is not just pretending, but a real mise-en-scène, you would say in French, a real production. The production value is becoming appreciated again. After the pandemic, I think there's a huge nostalgic moment now for the 2000s that started before the pandemic, and is now really, really seeing a big resurgence. I'm really excited to be on the forefront of that.
What about the Ice Spice Paper cover photo shoot stands out to you?
A lot of the inspiration behind the Ice Spice cover shoot was the 2000s. But it's a very modern and contemporary-looking image. Interestingly enough, people on Twitter said it looks very AI. But it is kind of funny to me, because people on the internet just have these trendy keywords that they're throwing around, but this is my style. This is how I shoot.
How do you predict the Ice Spice photos will be received over time?
I predict that my Ice Spice shoot is going to be one of those [milestones in 20 years]... Like a good wine, images don't become iconic the day that they're shot. They become iconic over time. It took a minute before the Dangerously in Love image was considered iconic. People liked it when it came out, and people were like, “Oh, that's pretty cool.” But it's over the next few years, as so many artists then came back to me and said, “We were inspired when we were growing up.”
It took almost 20 years for the Beyoncé and the Bowie work to move from being an album cover, a magazine cover, into art galleries and museums. That's typical because when you think about what is mainly in art galleries as it concerns celebrity photography, it's Marilyn Monroe. It's Audrey Hepburn. What I have managed and what I'm very proud of is that I've been able to shorten that time to the extreme. It took me 20 years for Beyoncé and Bowie, but it took me five days for Ice Spice to get her from the cover of the magazine into the art gallery. Five days after the Ice Spice cover came out, it was in the front window of my Manhattan art gallery. Everyone was walking into the gallery being very, very surprised. Next to Warhol and Basquiat, there was Ice Spice hanging in the front window.
What else are you working on?
I only want to hint at this. I'm currently working on a string of brand-new photo shoots that include some of the most iconic celebrities of all times. I'm continuing my journey into creating pop culture images. I like to call myself a documentarian of pop culture, more so than a fashion photographer or celebrity photographer, because there's many ways of doing celebrity photography. I think my aim is to always create an iconic, timeless image. I am continuing full swing. I consider myself mid-career. I'm very, very fortunate that art galleries and museums are so interested in my work. Even the Weeknd, Beyoncé, Tom Cruise, Christina Aguilera, they're all collectors of my work. The CEO of Warner Music Group just purchased a Bowie print. I have very high-end collectors. I'm very proud.
