In 1977, Madonna Ciccone was a 19-year-old dance student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. To cover her living costs and fund her training, she took on modeling work for art students and professional photographers.
One of her main collaborators was local photographer Herman Kulkens, who ran a studio where he shot Madonna for various art projects. She earned $10 per hour for the sessions — a practical wage that helped keep her in school.
At the time, Madonna looked nothing like the blonde pop icon the world would later know. She had dark brunette hair and a noticeably young face.
The Kulkens sessions covered a wide range of styles. Some photos featured Madonna in costume — vintage hats, wide-brimmed designs, and masculine clothing like a man’s dress shirt and necktie.
The sessions also included nude photography. Madonna posed nude for Kulkens the same way she did for life-drawing classes at the university — treating it as straightforward professional work.
The photographs stayed private for years while Madonna built her music career in New York City. When she reached global fame in the mid-1980s, the 1977 images became highly valuable to the press.
In 1985, both Playboy and Penthouse magazines purchased and published selections from the Kulkens sessions. The photos offered the public a rare look at Madonna before she became a household name.
A large number of photographs from those sessions were never released to the public and remain unseen to this day.
