What did Madonna look like when only the neighborhood kids knew her
A year before Madonna first appeared on television and confidently told American Bandstand host Dick Clark that she was going to "rule the world," photographer Richard Corman already knew about her intentions. A month before the release of Madonna's debut album, Corman took several pictures of the future superstar, and in 2013 released the book "Madonna New York 83" with them.
Corman, then still studying with photographer Richard Avedon, met Madonna on the advice of his mother, the casting director. Kis Korman first saw the singer at the audition for Martin Scorsese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ" (the director began filming back in 1983) and invited her son to contact her.
When Corman arrived on the Lower East Side and entered the building without an elevator where Madonna lived, he had to call a pay phone for money to get inside. But when the neighborhood children found out who Richard had come to, then, as the photographer recalls, "the waves parted."
Madonna served him coffee and gum on a silver platter, and then he took out his camera.
"I adore Madonna and respect her, I think she has outstanding abilities. But it's important to note that I'm not a crazy fan of her. This book is a tribute to that period and the present time. What excites me most about these photos is that they are all, absolutely every one, as if they were taken yesterday," the photographer explains.
"I appreciate her sensuality and her humor. She had such a beauty that I had never seen before and will never see in the future. She was ahead of the pop culture of the time, but none of us knew that. Those earrings that I now see on every corner. These artificial pearls are everywhere. These dark roots — now everyone dyes their hair like that. And red lips. It blows my mind."
Reviewing the photos for the book, Corman noticed something about the famous painted mole of Madonna, which worried him even 30 years later: "I didn't understand what kind of color it was until I looked at the pictures as intently as I am now. Then I realized that it was purple — to be combined with eye shadow. Her shoes, her look, carelessly loose hair, jeans —every detail was just perfect."
On the roof of the house where Madonna lived. Corman calls this picture one of his favorites: "She is inspired by children — just as they are inspired by her."
"In this shot, she is no longer absorbed in the children. She's busy with the camera. She gives me her attitude."
In front of a liquor store on the Lower East Side.
Madonna in the role of Cinderella for the remake, which never saw the light. "She would be great," Korman is sure.
At a nursing home on the Lower East Side. "They looked at her as if she were an alien, which they had never seen before," the photographer says.
Shooting for a magazine.
"She treated herself with great humor. Only she could have worn it."
"I don't think she's ever been more beautiful," says Corman.
"She was such a jerk. Very wayward, sexy and energetic."
Madonna performs on the set of the film "Visual Search" in 1983. "No one knew who she was, and she blew everyone away."