Mario Testino’s monograph / testimonial to Kate Moss was released in September 2010 in a limited run of 1,500 signed copies, each going for $2,000.

I met Kate very early on. Shortly after her first Galliano show I went backstage to congratulate her, only to find her crying: she was disappointed that she had only been given one outfit to model in the show. My answer to her was this: ‘In life there are perfumes and colognes. You need to use lots of cologne as the scent fades away; with a perfume you just use a drop and it lasts all night. You are a perfume, you will go on and on.’ Little did I know just how true that would become! And that I had made a friend for life.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

I thought it was on a shoot for French Glamour [that Mario and I first met], but he always says it was when I did a John Galliano show and I was crying on the steps or something.

- Kate Moss

Kate Moss by Mario Testino for Vogue Brazil May 2011

Mario took me to a new level of glamour. I don’t think anybody had seen me as any kind of sexy model before he did. He was the one that transformed me. Before him I was just a grungy girl, but he saw me differently. He was the first to say ‘Oh, she’s quite sexy. I’ve seen her out! I know she’s not just that grungy girl.’ He’d seen me in a pair of heels, getting glamorous – and he was the first to start taking pictures of me in that way. He changed the way people thought about me as a model, for sure. Later other people started working with me in that way, but he was the first.

- Kate Moss

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

She lives more fully than anyone else I know.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

This is just a couple of months ago. We were doing photos and we were hungry, so she made an omelette. She’s quick at making an omelette! It was a moment. Kate’s very loose with her body – not in a negative way, but in a comfortable way. I come from Peru and had a Catholic upbringing. I wasn’t raised to be comfortable with nudity. British people are a funny mix. They pretend to be prudish but they can be pretty decadent – as long as you close enough doors. I guess Kate doesn’t need the closed doors. She’s just free. It’s her nature.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

This is not the picture I was meant to do, it’s an in-between picture. We were doing shoot and I said: ‘All right I’ve got it’, and shy threw herself back on the bed, my paparazzi side came out – and this is the picture. It’s a relaxing shot between striking the pose. It’s where you get to see our relationship, where it’s not the magazine, or the editorial. It’s about us. Kate’s confidence is magical because it’s full of insecurities – she’s very frail. Even when she’s trying to be most sexy grown –up, the childishness in her always come out. I feel very protective towards her.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

I have never laughed so much in my whole life as with Mario on shoots. Sometimes we know we have to stop but we just can’t, we can’t even look at each other.

- Kate Moss

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

I guess back when we met I did not realize she would become an icon of the ‘now’ for so many people. All I could see or feel was an attraction to someone a lot younger than me.

- Mario Testino

Lila Grace and Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

… and I like the pictures [in this book] of me and Lila too. At the time they were taken, she was really young, and I didn’t want the press intruding on her, they were too private… but now the pictures are nostalgic for me.

- Kate Moss

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

We have been trying to work out exactly where this party is [the image below]. I think it is in New York, but it could be London or Cannes. It’s a long time ago, but I know this face so well – you know, with the mouth wide open when you scream hello. I’ve know Kate for over 20 years (our first job was for France Glamour when she was only 15) and the friendship I share with her is very intense. It’s different sort of friendship. It’s not like I see her every weekend, or we go out every night, but when we see each other. It’s always the same. This image encapsulates how I see Kate. It’s totally her. She’s so at ease. That’s the side I like. I like her sexy, and I her different, but many of those sides are a front. This is the reality.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

In the press people say “oh, there she is… she’s out again”, and they don’t see me getting up and going to work every day. They just print pictures of me coming out of a party or whatever… I’ve worked hard for 20 years and I’m still working now! The book has a really good balance of work and play and shows that the fashion industry is not the completely vicious place it is so often made out to be. I don’t think it is at all.

- Kate Moss

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

This was taken in my office while doing a story for Italian vogue. I wanted to bring Kate into my world and photograph her in a way that redressed her, so we decided to do the shoot using the portrait on my book. I carried on taking pictures after we had finished and this is one of those. The picture she is holding was the poster for my exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It’s become quite an iconic picture for us, because the exhibition has travelled all over the word and she has always been the face of the show. I thought it was cute to do her quite real, in this way, but with this face.

- Mario Testino

Kate Moss by Mario Testino © Mario Testino

This was shot at the Royal Opera House for American vogue. It didn’t appear in the magazine, we just did it for a laugh. Kate was asking: ‘How would I have been if I was a dancer? With the tutu and a crown on? She’s so sweet like that ,no? She is you all- time English girl, I love her because she doesn’t come from money. She comes from a very normal background. I’ve always found that’s made her quite balanced. And as much as I can appreciate her style and her beauty, the thing that has made our relationship is her sense of humor. We laugh a lot. All the time. That is our relationship, I guess.

- Mario Testino