Melania Trump

Photographed in New York City in 1996, this image belongs to a broader series produced during Ale de Basseville’s early photographic period. The session took place in a studio setting in Manhattan, at a time when the model was working independently in the fashion industry under the name Melania Knauss (Trump today) and was not a public figure.

The photographs were made in the context of experimental portrait and figure studies conducted by de Basseville in 1996, alongside sessions with models, artists, and performers. These works explored the body as presence rather than persona, emphasizing posture, light, and tension over narrative or identity.

The image predates any later political, media, or symbolic role associated with the subject. Its meaning and intention remain rooted in the moment of its making, independent of subsequent appropriation or reinterpretation.