Self-portrait © Sante D'Orazio

Gritty and sensual. Two words that automatically seize you while viewing any shot by Sante D'Orazio, photographer of choice for scads of glitterati from Hollywood to Milan. D'Orazio came to Japan in July for the opening of his first Tokyo exhibition. He only had four days to look around, but didn't know where to start. "I wanted to meet Hiraki, the photographer, and I didn't get the chance to see any photo museums or any other galleries, so it's sort of disappointing to me. I actually haven't had a guide here either, so it's kind of unpleasant - it's like being dropped on 34th Street and Madison Avenue and being told [to] fend for yourself."

His Tokyo trip wasn't a complete washout. Seeing his exhibit at Anniversaire so beautifully presented was very rewarding. "The Japanese really have a certain appreciation for the work, I guess artwork in general. The Italians do; the Germans do. It's nice when certain cultures have an appreciation for the artists themselves. In America it's not as artist-friendly. It's like, how much money do you have in the bank and that's how much we'll respect you. And that's unfortunate. So it's really nice to come to a place where people really respect your work and they respect you for it. I really appreciate that."

Smile © Sante D'Orazio

D'Orazio, a very youthful-looking 43 years old, became interested in a career in the arts well before majoring in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College. It was in his blood. "My mom was an opera singer in Italy, and I had an uncle that was an opera singer. Another uncle was a classical violinist, another one a painter, another a poet - so I had a family history of artists." Full of natural confidence, D'Orazio was able to get a job in photography's major league without much prior experience when he got the guts to go to Italy and demand a job with Italian Vogue magazine. "I had assisted only three years, and most people assist eight years before they get any work. I didn't have a portfolio. I had some drawings, I had some odd photographs here and there, about ten photographs that looked like ten different photographers took them. I was just developing.

"My first Monday [in Italy], I just decided I'd go to Italian Vogue, and if they don't like it, I'm just going to visit my family and get out of here. I stayed in the art department for three hours, and finally I got my first assignment. Nudes. Because I had drawings of nudes. I had paintings of nudes. And ten photographs."

D'Orazio at the opening of his Anniversaire exhibition. Courtesy of Anniversaire

A small smattering of the (often scantily clad) celebrities D'Orazio has worked with include Dennis Rodman, Naomi Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, John Travolta, Jaye Davidson, The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, Antonio Banderas and wife Melanie Griffith, Gianni Versace and sister Donatella. D'Orazio says he never gets star struck. "I think that's part of the allure that they have towards me. I don't really care who they are, I just care that they're nice people and they're going to cooperate. We're going to have a good time and take some great pictures... I just shot Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time... He stayed eight hours on the set because he told me he could not wait to shoot with me. And that was beautiful. When someone says that, it's a nice compliment. He was excited to shoot with me, and so I put out even more for that. It's nice. I'm lucky enough to have that kind of rapport with these people. It's fun."

Treating his subjects as equal professionals has enabled D'Orazio to use this familial working relationship to take both physically and emotionally revealing shots which penetrate right to the heart of his subjects.

"My work is based on the fact that I'm able to get into the person somehow or other," D'Orazio says. "It becomes intimate. There's something sensual about it; there's some sex appeal about it. I edit for the picture that says the most about the person I'm shooting. So, intimate, personal, sensual, sexy, all those things combined, and a certain relationship with my subject that I think separates me from the other photographers. My talent lies in getting people to open up. The rest is easy."