‘Groundbreaking’ fashion photographer Roxanne Lowitt has died.

American fashion photographer Roxanne Lowitt has died at the age of 80. Lowitt is one of the leading photographers in her field, capturing up-close and personal behind-the-scenes photos of the fashion world.

In the year Born in New York City in 1942, Lowitt never studied to become a photographer, instead graduating from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in art history and textile design.

However, after sporting an Instamatic 110 camera given to her by artist Antonio López in the late 1970s and using it to shoot her own designs backstage, Soho News fashion editor Annie Flanders LeWitt hired her to cover Paris Fashion Week. .

Lowit learned to load film for her new Nikon 35mm camera on a flight to France. She found herself photographing backstage scenes at Paris Fashion Week, and on that trip famously shot Andy Warhol and Yves Saint Laurent from the top of the Eiffel Tower. When she returned to New York, Lowitt quit her job and decided to become a full-time photographer.

Lowitt pioneered behind-the-scenes fashion photography. Her images provide a rare insight into the glitz and sleazy profits of the fashion industry at the end of the 20th century.

such as Vogue She writes, “Shooting behind-the-scenes events at fashion shows was Lowitt’s instinct, but one of her lasting legacies—mostly born out of necessity, as the photographers allowed to shoot the runways at the time were mostly men.” By sneaking backstage, Lowit managed to capture another side of the fashion circus—coverage that’s becoming increasingly difficult for industry publications during fashion month—and offered an intimate window into the more quotidian aspects of a model’s life.

Throughout her career, Lowitt has photographed cultural icons such as Salvador Dali, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Karl Lagerfeld. But her most famous photos show the rise of supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Noami Campbell and Linda Evangelista in the 1980s and 1990s.

A rep confirmed the photographer’s death on Instagram last week: “Roxanne Lowitt was a legendary photographer who gave an intimate look into the world of fashion and showed a side of nightlife that most people never got to see.

Image Credits:Feature photo by FIT at the Museum.