"Disciples" was published on the occasion of Mario Testino’s show at Timothy Taylor Gallery in London in 2003. This exhibition catalogue includes an interview with Testino by Julia Peyton-Jones and was designed in-house by MARIOTESTINO+. The "Disciples" exhibition saw a divergence from the usual subjects and subject matter associated with Testino’s work. For eight years, whenever Testino was able to take time out from his hypercharged, adrenalised life, he would make private visits to churches in places such as Rome, Naples, Seville and Ayacucho (in his native Peru) and take photographs of what he would see. "Disciples" turns the lens onto the intense colour, pageant and rituals found in Catholicism.

Testino said: “In a way the church is about beauty. It’s a spiritual beauty, but it’s reflected by an aesthetic or physical beauty. The rich, pink colour worn by cardinals is deliberately very strong in contrast to the sombreness inside the church and the black clothes of the other prelates. The symbolic meaning of dress in the church ceremonial is massive: the robes, the fabrics, the colours, the jewellery, the attention with which each piece of cloth is made to and worn, are all key elements in any religious ritual; they’re never left to chance. At the same time the vestments give a sense that we’re really irrelevant in this world. The individual persona recedes and the vestment takes on a certain independent status of its own. This impeccable attention to the significance of dress in the church has a very strong influence on me.”

Interview with Julia Peyton-Jones. Hardcover, 36 pages. Published by Timothy Taylor Gallery, London (August 2003); English edition