HIS subjects are often super models but famous fashion photographer Paolo Roversi now turns his lens on eight ordinary Chinese families. Liu Xiaolin develops the story.

Legendary fashion photographer Paolo Roversi is famous for ethereal and exquisite portraits, many of them reminiscent of the vintage images made during the early 1900s when film photography became popular.

His remarkable images, both romantic and intense, have made him an icon, considered one of the greats like Richard Avedon. His works hang in museums and grace the covers and pages of magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Marie Claire; he shoots for luxury brands such as Hermes, Armani, Dior and YSL.

The 64-year-old photographer was recently in Shanghai for an exhibition of his portraits of Chinese families, titled "Pass it On - Beautiful Families." The images are part of a campaign for Shang Xia, a Chinese clothing and lifestyle brand created, manufactured, and sold in China by French luxury house Hermes.

Hundreds of ordinary Chinese families uploaded their old black-and-white family photos to the brand's website. Eight, a lucky number in China, were chosen to have their photos taken by Roversi.

"This series is about time passing by but people remaining still," Roversi said in an interview with Shanghai Daily. "Every family has it own story and own character. I was moved by everyone."

He describes this portrait work:

"You can see how important it was for them to be assembled together in front of a photographer because it's a kind of official portrait. So I did it in a very simple and the most honest way. Because when you look at these small pictures which were taken 60 or 70 years ago, the stories were already there. The time tells the stories of these people better than anything else. You'd better not add many things else. Just take the picture. And it's enough."

Family portraits

The photos are on exhibit through to October 12 at Shang Xia space in Sinan Mansion, Huangpu District, along with the catalogues Roversi shot for the brand's latest collection.

But for Roversi, the show never ends.

"I would like to continue these stories and make it a new book. I want everyone in it," he said, though he doesn't have immediate plans to photograph more Chinese families.

He's dressed casually in jeans and wears circular-framed eyeglasses and a Fujifilm interchangeable lens digital camera around his neck. His eyes alight on a reporter's camera on a desk and the easygoing icon jokes, "We should talk about cameras, not the brand."

Born in Ravenna, Italy, in 1947, young Roversi became interested in taking pictures during a trip to Spain and then immersed himself in photography.

In 1970 he became a freelance photographer for The Associated Press; in 1970 his first assignment was covering Ezra Pound's funeral in Venice. The same year he opened a portrait studio with friends in Ravenna. The next year by chance he met Peter Knapp, then artistic director of Elle Magazine, and was introduced to the world of fashion. He went to Paris in 1973 and has never left.

When he started, Roversi knew almost nothing about fashion, and then he saw what he calls the "strong and subtle" works by renowned fashion photographers like Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin.

"(Fashion photography) is all about imagination, creativity and beauty. I like it more and more," he said in the interview.

He became the assistant of English photographer Lawrence Sackmann whom he has described as "very strict, crazy and with strong personality." He learned a lot.

"He always told me that you have to fix very well your tripod and camera but to keep your mind completely free," Roversi said of his teacher.

That's what he's been doing ever since.

After surviving nine months with Sackmann, he got small jobs for Elle and Depeche Mode, until Marie Claire published his first major fashion story.

"I was very proud of that eight-picture story and I bought a lot of magazines myself. I cut these pages very carefully to make my portfolio. I sent magazines to my mother, friends, everywhere. About two weeks later, I went to buy some fish in the market and found one of my pictures was used to wrap the fish," he recalled in the interview, slapping his hands as if it was a slap in his face.

"Another time I saw a lady reading Marie Claire with good stories by me. She was reading very slowly but when she came to my pages, she went 'Chuchuchuchu…'" as she flipped past his work. "You can't please everyone."

A Christian Dior beauty campaign brought him wide recognition in 1980. The same year, 8-by-10-inch Polaroid film came out. Roversi was fascinated by its color, contrast and texture and started experimenting. It became his trademark.

"It's like a painter to find his palette. The film is the right tool for me, like my blood and skin," said Roversi.

Polaroid ended production in 2008. Roversi saved a few boxes but he called the end of Polaroid a "disaster" for his work. "I really cry for it," he said.

"I have to change, though I've not decided yet. I'm not obsessed with certain kinds of techniques. I'm very free about it. I can work with this (Fujifilm) camera or with an iPhone," he said.

Roversi is acclaimed for his unique lighting using Mag-Lite flashlights, sometimes known as "Roversi Lighting." His secret is long exposure, as long as 30 seconds, to keep the light on certain parts of his subject.

"In this way, the look is more intense and profound, as if it allows time for the soul to appear," Roversi once told The Sunday Telegraph.

In his recent shoot for Alberta Ferretti's 2011 spring/summer collection, Russian model Sasha Pivovarova looks like a fragile baby doll made of freshly fallen snow. Supernova Natalia Vodianova shows a mystic beauty in his fancy plays of light and shade in the latest shoots for her charitable Naked Heart Foundation.

Almost all his best work is done in the studio. He describes shooting with his favorite models as "a love story with muses," including Vodianova, Kate Moss and Guinevere van Seenus.

Before moving into his official studio, he used to work in his apartment on the Left Bank in Paris. He converted the bedroom and living room into temporary studios and moved his bed to make way for the shooting.

Photos as theater

In 2005, Roversi published a photo book titled "Studio," recording highlights of the past 25 years in his studio.

For him, a studio is "a theater with an empty stage to play fancy stories," while he, of course, is the director. "I see my photography (as) a little theatrical," he said.

He likes to put all the energies and accidents in the studio together and see what happens.

"I just leave them (all the staff working in the studio, such as models, stylists, assistants...) to be creative and inspired. The stories will come out little by little," he said.

He accepts all the emotions his models give, tears or smiles. He records it, absorbs it himself and brings forth the pictures, often using a Deardorff 8x10.

"The photographer is like a double mirror. That is why I always say every part is a little bit self-portrait because there is always something of yourself in the picture," he said.

"I don't snap all the time. I'm not that kind of photographers who always scared to miss their good pictures. If I miss it, I miss it," he said.

He used to think a lot before clicking the shutter, considering about the way and direction to move the light. But now he works more instinctively, intimately and emotionally, with less emphasis on technique.

"Maybe in the beginning the picture was more dated, of that moment, and now it becomes more timeless."

This year, the master of light and shade will take some time out from studio work and realize his childhood dream of being a director. He is now writing the script based on the life of a famous writer, whom he won't identify. He won't say much, except that he is looking for actors.

"I want Johnny Depp and Eva Longoria to play. But they don't know yet," he grinned.