At fifteen, Szilveszter Makó shot a classmate on a long exposure until she came out translucent. He’d wanted to be a painter, but found it too slow. He works out of Milan now, unsigned, building his sets by hand from cardboard and bedsheets — then placing Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, and Solange inside them for Vogue, GQ Italia, and Numéro Paris. This summer he shot Rihanna for the first time, an eighteen-page story for Edward Enninful’s 72. Here he talks about the brief he ignored, the one person he still hasn’t photographed, and the object he keeps in his pocket on every shoot.

Three places you’ve felt inspired by.

My primary school in Lillafüred. It sat at the bottom of two mountains, miles from any shops or streets. I remember a river around the grounds and a stone castle to play in. The remote villages of Yunnan. I've seen old ladies so elegantly dressed and wrapped in bright scarfs complimented with headpieces, and this is how they dress each day. I was shocked, in the best of ways." Milan, though I had no intentions to live here. What remained was the city itself, the culture, architecture and presence of history carved into the walls.

What can't you stop thinking about and why?

Tilda Swinton. I have a visual board of ideas created for her, accumulated over the years. I haven't had the chance to work with her yet. She is a consistent thought, an idea, in my mind. If I have the chance to work with her, I'd be ready.

What's the best thing you've refused to do?

The brief for my shoot was simple and clean. A suit, black and white. Willem Dafoe in a suit has been done a thousand times before. Months prior I had been in Hungary with my grandma, looking through childhood photographs, and I saw my kindergarten self with a cardboard house on my head. I asked Willem to wear the headpiece and act as if his parents had just sent him to the corner for misbehaving. Three shots in and I had the image.

Who is your forever inspo?

My master, whom I really look up to and admire so much, is Paolo Roversi.

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