Veruschka: A Life for the Camera

Veruschka - Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers

Overview

Vera von Lehndorff is a Prussian noblewoman and daughter of the Count Lehndorff, a leader of the anti-Nazi resistance, executed during WW II. She was discovered in 1959 by Italian photographer Ugo Mulas. After initial failure, she changed her name to Veruschka, became one of the first top models and was also considered for a long time one of the most beautiful women in the world. Muse to Antonioni in Blow up, and to Dalì, in the 1960s she was on the cover of magazines like Life, Vogue and Queen, and photographed by the most important talents of the time (Avedon, Newton). In 1965 she began working on "transfigurations", which would lead to body art, where make-up becomes real body painting: from cat-woman, to snake, plant, mineral, African idol and finally to an immortal metallic body (for Rubartelli, director of the films Stop Veruschka and Trülzsch) which survives the natural decay of objects over time.