Deborah Feingold: I never heard from Madonna ever again!

For the promotion of her latest book “Music”, photographer Deborah Feingold gave multiple interviews to various website where she talked about the iconic Madonna pictures.

She told Billboard…

I lived in a little one-room apartment in the West Village and had a bowl of bubble gum and lollipops. We didn’t speak except for ‘Turn this way, turn that way.’ No hairstylist, no makeup, no clothing. We were just two working girls. I didn’t have to coax her. She and I worked the entire time. I gave her what she needed, she gave me what I needed, and then she got up and left. I never heard from her again.

I wanted to shoot her and Musician [magazine] wasn’t covering it, so I called up David Keats at the time, who was an editor for Star Hits, and I said, ‘David I really wanna shoot her!’ And he was like ‘OK,’ and that’s what it was like in those days. Can you imagine? ‘Oh, David I wanna shoot her!’ I had been doing some work for Warner Bros, so it wasn’t that far-fetched.”

Boston Globe asked her why her pictures of Madonna took a life of their own.
Her reply…

I have no explanation for that. It was a 20-minute shoot in my apartment that was so tiny that all my furniture folded up against the wall, including the bed, table, and chairs. I was all set up. I had one assistant. She came with Liz Rosenberg, who remained her publicist. Her makeup was ready to go. I had a bowl of lollipops, Tootsie Rolls, and bubble gum. I probably didn’t get paid or have a budget; hence a bowl of lollipops and bubble gum. Everything was very simple. I shot four rolls of film, and for every frame she changed it up. It was like a dance, and I was a good follower. I had the skill, but she led. Twenty minutes later, she knew we had finished, and she left. She was a working girl, I was there to work, and that’s what you see.

Silive asked her the same questions…

Silive: Why do you think the photo of Madonna became one of your most iconic photos?
Deborah Feingold: I don’t know why it ended up being such a hit. Is it a naivete? Is it the Madonna everyone wanted to know before she became famous? It’s as interesting to me as it is to anyone else.