![]() “You can look at a photo and tell if the subject was comfortable or not. (She fell off, delaying the shoot.) When photographing Uma Thurman lounging on a seedy motel bed for Pulp Fiction, he added just one salacious touch: a pair of Frederick’s of Hollywood stilettos with scuffed soles to imply they’d been well-worn. His diplomacy skills have often come in handy-like the time he asked Diana Ross to pose for an album cover atop a giant white horse. “You are working with a star but you have to take into consideration that you are also working with a human being,” he said. Zahedi’s formula for success relies on putting even the biggest names at ease. As a contract photographer for Vanity Fair, his work was featured alongside peers like Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts. In Los Angeles, he made his mark in portraits and advertising, creating images for clients such as Coca Cola and L’Oréal while shooting major celebrities. Taylor persuaded Zahedi to follow her to Hollywood as her personal photographer. He and Taylor remained friends until she passed away in 2011, about the same time his exhibition of her photos opened at LACMA. His “snapshots,” as he describes them, of Taylor wearing traditional tribal outfits later became part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He accompanied Taylor on a goodwill trip to Iran. In 1976, a cousin introduced Zahedi to Elizabeth Taylor, sparking a lifelong friendship. While still a Corcoran student, Zahedi struck up a friendship with Andy Warhol, who featured some of his first professional work in Interview magazine. “Going to that beautiful school, with that Beaux Arts building and all those amazing people, it was like everything I dreamt of was coming true for me.” Surrounded by fellow art students-“It must have been what Paris in the ’20s felt like,”he recalled-Zahedi remembers his Corcoran experience as the most formative years of his life. But longing to pursue creative arts, he secretly applied to the Corcoran-a decision, he says, that changed his life. Following his father’s wishes, he briefly took up a career as a diplomat at the Iranian Embassy. When Zahedi came to Washington, D.C., in 1969, he attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. The book not only catalogues his illustrious career but also pays homage to the golden age of cinema that helped him through his childhood. ![]() ![]() Now Zahedi has collected some of his most arresting portraits in a new book titled Look at Me (Pointed Leaf Press, 2020). And his close friends and mentors have included Andy Warhol and Elizabeth Taylor. He has shot album covers for Diana Ross and posters for movies like Pulp Fiction. His portraits of Hollywood icons from Meryl Streep to Barbra Streisand have appeared in major magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue. In 1959, his family moved to London and, in 1969, Zahedi came to Washington, D.C. In 1974, Zahedi enrolled in the Corcoran School of Art and, while still a visual communication student, embarked on a nearly 50-year-career as one of the entertainment world’s most celebrated photographers. In the dark of the Tehran theaters, Zahedi could never imagine how his love affair with the movies would flourish beyond his boyhood dreams. “I focused on them so I wouldn’t get traumatized by what was going on around me. “I’d watch those big colorful Hollywood movies with those beautiful people and lush music and happy endings,” he recalled. With a coup in the capital and turmoil in the streets-Zahedi’s own father was jailed as a political prisoner-he lost himself in the allure of the silver screen. Beyoncé is the queen of the world.Growing up amid the political tumult of 1950s Iran, Firooz Zahedi, BFA ’76, often escaped to the movies. When FHM magazine named her Sexiest Woman in the World in 2014, Jennifer disputed it. Meanwhile, her trademark locks were styled straight and parted down the middle. The blonde teamed the flesh-flashing ensemble with strappy stilettos and deep smoky eye makeup. She also revealed one of her shapely legs in a dress which was slashed daringly hight. The blonde beauty looked stunning as she flaunted her cleavage in a plunging black gown. ![]() Jennifer unleashed her ample assets and pins in a dress slashed to her knicker line while promoting Red Sparrow in 2018.
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