“I’ve never made a mistake on a photographer; now you have to put your money on Nikolai,” said Vogue Italia Editor-in-Chief Franca Sozzani at Gelila Assefa Puck’s inaugural Dream for Future Africa Foundation Gala held at Spago in Beverly Hills on Thursday, October 24. Sozzani, who was recently appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, was honored at the benefit for her magazine’s famed Black issues and her ongoing commitment to raising consciousness about the people of Africa and the craftsmanship, beadwork, and textile production on the continent. At the party, Sozzani praised the work of London-born Nikolai Von Bismarck just as Simon de Pury prepared to auction a print by the lensman at the fundraiser held inside Wolfgang Puck’s Canon Drive restaurant. As a teenager, Von Bismarck took Polaroids of the Maasai in Kenya while on vacation, then he proceeded to work for Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz. Now Von Bismarck is shooting for Sozzani and he donated a massive print of an African landscape for the event. As the artist and his brother held the framed image for the bidding audience to see, Sozzani (seated near her photographer son Francesco Carrozzini) hinted at her notable eye for photographers (she helped launch the careers of Steven Meisel and Paolo Roversi, among others), adding, “Years ago it was Bruce Weber, now I’ve found Nikolai.”

Pictured: Francesco Carrozzini & Franca Sozzani
Photo by Stefanie Keenan for WireImage

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