Roxanne Lowit, a pioneering fashion photographer who captured the backstage glamour and drama of the industry, died on September 14, 2022, at the age of 80. Her death was confirmed by a representative on Instagram, who wrote: “Roxanne was a woman who believed in magic. Roxanne was a bright, creative light. A great friend who enriched others’ lives in so many ways—she was loved by many and will be greatly missed.”
The Cause of Death
According to FashionNetwork, Lowit died of a stroke at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. The cause of death was not revealed by her daughter Vanessa, who deferred comment to Jesse Frohman, a fellow photographer and friend of Lowit.
Lowit was born in 1942 in Manhattan and graduated from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology in art history and textile design. She began her career as a photographer in the late 1970s, after being gifted an Instamatic 110 camera by illustrator Antonio Lopez. She used it to shoot her own designs backstage at shows, which led to her first assignment for SoHo News: covering Paris Fashion Week.
The Legacy of Lowit
Lowit became one of the most influential photographers in the fashion world, thanks to her intimate and personal behind-the-scenes photographs of the models, designers, celebrities, and parties that shaped the industry. She was known for her candid and spontaneous style, capturing moments that were often missed by the mainstream media.
She developed a close rapport with many iconic figures, such as Yves Saint Laurent, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Karl Lagerfeld, and Naomi Campbell. She chronicled the rise of the supermodels in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the glamour and excesses of the fashion scene in New York, Paris, and Marrakech.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New York Times. She has also published several books of her photographs, including Moments (1990), People (2001), Backstage Dior (2009), and Roxanne Lowit Photographs Yves Saint Laurent (2014).
Lowit’s photographs are not only a testament to her talent and vision, but also a historical record of the fashion industry and its cultural impact. As Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s long-term partner, wrote in the introduction to her 2014 book: “Roxanne is always there, even when she is not expected. Her sharp eye has been able to capture the most secret situations, the most hidden of mysteries.”
