Wangenheim was born in
Brieg, during the
Second World War, the son of
Konrad Freiherr von Wangenheim, an aristocratic German
Cavalry officer who became an Olympic horse rider at the
1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, winning a gold medal in
Team Eventing. In 1944, while serving on the
Eastern Front, his father was taken prisoner and held in a
POW camp located in the
Soviet Union. He remained imprisoned for almost ten years and was found hanged days before his intended release. After studying architecture for a period of time, Wangenheim decided to pursue his interest in photography. In 1965, he moved to
New York City where he worked as a photographer's assistant for
David Thorpe and
James Moore until 1967. He started his own studio the following year and began working for the American edition of ''
Harper's Bazaar, and for the Italian edition of Harper's Bazaar'' in 1970. American
Vogue became his primary outlet in 1972, but he also worked for its German, French and Italian editions, as well as for
Esquire,
Playboy,
Interview, and
Viva magazines. Wangenheim is also known for his advertisements for
Christian Dior,
Calvin Klein, and
Revlon. Supermodel
Gia Carangi did her first major fashion shoot with him in October 1978. He took the photographs of Carangi standing naked behind a chain-link fence. Carangi became one of Wangenheim's favorite models and worked with him on several fashion photographs throughout her career. On 9 March 1981, Wangenheim was killed in a single-car crash while on holiday in
Saint Martin. At the time of his death, he was in the process of divorcing the former model Regine Jaffry, with whom he had one child. On September 15, 2015, Rizzoli published a book on Wangenheim's work and life by Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha entitled
Gloss: The Work of Chris von Wangenheim, with a foreword by the photographer Steven Klein. ==References==