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BY NATHAN T. ELLIS - Some ten years ago, fresh out of photography school and a recent arrival in New York, Michael Thompson cold-called the legendary Irving Penn in search of a job. "He just happened to be seeing people at the time. I didn't even know exactly what I was interviewing for. It turned out to be the first assistant's job," says Thompson. Thompson had no connection whatsoever to Penn and scant experience in the city. But Penn, seeing the startling maturity of Thompson's work, hired him on the spot to be his right-hand man. Of this auspicious debut, Thompson shrugs and says he was lucky.

Today Thompson is one of the top fashion photographers in the business, shooting editorial for glossies like W, Vogue, and Allure, as well as ad campaigns for the likes of L'Oreal, Revlon, Chanel, and Neutrogena. Though Thompson tosses around the word “luck” with the frequency of a Vegas craps shooter, his success has more to do with talent and hard work.

Behind the camera Thompson is a maestro, able to create images so elegant and seductive one wants to crawl inside the world depicted on the page.

But away from the lens, he's still an unassuming guy from Washington State. Thompson doesn't throw flashy parties, court celebrity friends, or sport a rakish mullet. In fact, I couldn't distinguish him from his assistants when I visited his spacious, industrial-chic studio in West Chelsea; I was surprised when a baby-faced guy with bristly brown hair ambled over to me and introduced himself as its owner.

A bookshelf on the wall of Thompson's office, filled with photography books and framed pictures of his wife Kelly and their daughter Ruby, reveals his priorities. He apologizes for previously rescheduling our interview (he had good cause: a massive, 65-person shoot for Details). Rather than sit at his desk, he takes a small chair by the door, closer to his interviewer. Success obviously hasn't gone to this man's head.

When asked what drew him to fashion photography, Thompson doesn't answer. Instead, he plucks a picture from the shelf and hands it to me. It's a black-and-white photograph of a simple storefront with a sign that reads "Thompson Photographic Arts."

"[This] was my father's portrait studio back home. He died when I was 18, so I was too young to take over that business," he says.

Thompson traveled south to California instead, to study at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. During his schooling, he happened to intern with a fashion photographer. "It was mostly catalog work, but this was a boom time in fashion. Top models were being flown in from New York, so I got to rub elbows with a high level of talent."

With a high-fashion taste in his mouth, Thompson set out for New York shortly thereafter and quickly landed the coveted first assistant's job with his idol Irving Penn. During the day, Thompson oversaw all the technical details of Penn's work, then labored nights at a friend's studio on his own pictures.

"When I first started, my work looked very similar to Penn's. A lot of assistants want to find their style as soon as they get out of the gates," he says. "I think it's OK to have similarities with others sometimes. You don't want to get bogged down in one style."

A top fashion photographer not hell-bent on developing a signature style? A confession of style apathy seemed just around the corner.

And it was.

"I appreciate the clothes, but I'm not a big fashion guy," says Thompson, his gaze wandering over his ensemble of gray T-shirt, khaki shorts, and running shoes. He's not keen on making the scene either, rarely attending parties and never appearing in the gossip columns.

What Thompson cares about is taking pictures, and it's apparent he enjoys working with a kind of purity that is rare these days. New York being the capital of hyperbole, and fashion supplying a good bit of it, Thompson's success is a refreshing reminder that talent can shine without constant self-promotion.

Of course, powerful imagery makes a great mouthpiece. When Thompson shot a fashion story for the premiere issue of Allure in 1993, the magazine quickly requested him for virtually all of their beauty stories. Rumor has it Thompson now has a five-year contract with W, though he denies it.

"I just want to keep working, keep having fun, maybe do some music videos or film work - I'm fascinated by film," says Thompson, who has shot TV commercials for Ellen Betrix and L'Oreal. Offers to shoot videos have come through, but he declined because "I [need] to like the band's music to do it."

He also reveals plans for a book of his work to be edited by W Creative Director Dennis Freedman. The pair are currently compiling images for the project, but Thompson emphasizes it won't be a vanity project. "Fifteen years ago, a book was something special. Now everyone puts them out. I want mine to be unique, to have a meaning."

He's also open to the possibilities of the Digital Age. While Thompson doesn't use a digital camera, nearly all of his post-production work is done digitally.

"It helps you get the quality while keeping the traditional photographic feel. A wrinkle in a dress doesn't ruin a great picture - you can't re-touch a mood," he explains. "Of course, a picture can look too re-touched. You have to know when to stop."

He needn't worry about that. Michael Thompson has no problems with restraint.