Happy Birthday Madonna

This totes fierce Madonna moodboard was on the dazed digital tumblr, which informs me that today is Madonna's birthday! The collage was created by the magazine's Senior Fashion Editor as research for their August 2008 Madonna cover issue. This was when her album Hard Candy came out, which I didn't get into that much, though I still listen to Hung Up all the time.

Vintage Madonna

Photographer Richard Corman met Madonna in 1982,  less than a year before she released her debut album and became the massive mega star she is today. 

"I had to call her from a phone booth across the street, because the neighborhood was full of drug dealers, and they didn't let people just walk in and out. There was a group of kids outside the building, on the stoop, in the hallways, and when I said I was there for Madonna the seas parted…

…When I came back a few days later to shoot her, she said, "You know, we should go up to the roof because I go up there with all the kids from the building." She was like the Pied Piper of the neighborhood - they loved her. They followed her, they danced with her, they sang with her. It was something they did on a daily basis, and it was remarkable. We just walked up and they gathered around. She put the boom box on - it was her music, though I don’t remember which song - and they just started dancing and singing. She was so alive and unpretentious. She was fierce, determined. Nothing was going to stop her. "

Corman only recently told his story and shared these early photographs with the world. You can check out the rest of the series here.