This one was by Steven Meisel, a fashion/celeb photographer. He also shot her dreadful book Sex, as well as lots of other rather weird stuff.
Steven and client
Most of the ideas for this one, though, were Madonna’s. It’s basically just her early look from Desperately Seeking Susan days.
Meisel did a few more of the Material Girl.
He’s got 25 credits total, including a fairly well-known one of Mariah Carey.
Some critic sees Madonna as “not presenting herself just as an object of desire, but also as a desiring female subject.” And here’s the Material Girl herself’s take: “I have always loved to play cat and mouse with the conventional stereotypes. My Like a Virgin album cover is a classic example. People were thinking who was I pretending to be—the Virgin Mary or the whore? These were the two extreme images of women I had known vividly, and remembered from childhood, and I wanted to play with them. I wanted to see if I can merge them together, Virgin Mary and the whore as one and all. The photo was a statement of independence, if you wanna be a virgin, you are welcome. But if you wanna be a whore, it's your fucking right to be so.” By the way, can you see the Boy Toy belt buckle?
Wikipedia says that the album “received mixed reviews from music critics, but was a commercial success.” I guess that kind of sums up the Material Girl’s whole career, don’t it?
This is actually the album where Madonna’s career really took off. In addition to the title track, it also includes “Into the Groove.” I’m not familiar with any of the others.
Here are a couple of other album covers of Madonna's that I like:
And here's a couple shots of the Material Girl herself:
Cones!
I think this one deserves a parody or two, no?
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