Which magazine commissioned Melania Trump's 1995 nude photoshoot?

1. What magazine ran the photos: the basic fact

Multiple contemporary and later news accounts identify Max — a now‑defunct French men's magazine — as the publication that printed Melania Trump’s nude photo spread that surfaced in reporting around 2016 ^{[1] [2] [4]}. Press descriptions call Max a French adult/men’s magazine that ran the images in an issue dated January 1996 even as some outlets reported the photos were shot in 1995 ^{[1] [2]}.

2. Where and when the shoot reportedly took place

Coverage traces the images to a two‑day shoot in New York conducted while Melania Knauss was establishing herself as a model in the U.S.; many outlets cite 1995 as the shoot year and say the photos later appeared in Max’s January 1996 issue ^{[5] [6] [4]}. CNN and other reports note the photos were taken in New York City in 1995 and published by Max, which has been an element of reporting that fed scrutiny over Melania Trump’s immigration timeline ^[2].

3. Dispute over exact timing and immigration implications

Politico and others reported a correction and debate about dates: the New York Post originally said the pictures were taken in 1995 for the January 1996 Max issue, but later reporting and statements from Melania’s lawyer suggested the timeline may differ — Politico notes the Post acknowledged an error in dating, and lawyers argued the shoot occurred after she entered the U.S. in 1996 ^[7]. CNN flagged the photos’ publication as raising questions about the chronology of Melania’s arrival in the U.S., because the images were widely reported as from 1995 ^{[2] [7]}.

4. Who shot the pictures and how outlets described the spread

Multiple outlets name French photographer Alé de Basseville as the photographer and describe the imagery as a stylized, “artful” nude spread rather than explicit pornography; some coverage frames it in the context of fashion and men’s magazines of the era ^{[5] [8] [4]}. British GQ separately ran a nude shoot with Melania around 2000, which is repeatedly referenced as a different, later project ^{[9] [3]}.

5. How different sources frame the material and motives

Tabloid outlets and mainstream outlets both published the images and commentary; some conservative and pro‑Trump outlets downplayed controversy by stressing Melania’s past as a successful model and the commonplace nature of such European shoots ^{[1] [5]}. Other reporting highlighted potential political consequences — notably, that publication of the photos in 2016 intersected with questions about visa timing and public perception ^{[2] [7]}.

6. Limits of the available reporting

Available sources consistently identify Max magazine as the publication that printed the spread and describe a 1995 Manhattan shoot, but they disagree or correct about precise publication and shoot dates: some sources say the images were originally published in January 1996, while political reporting later noted corrections to the Post’s timeline and cited statements pushing the shoot to after August/October 1996 ^{[1] [7]}. Available sources do not mention an official, contemporaneous press release from Max confirming the shoot date beyond citations in later reporting ^{[1] [7]}.

7. Why this matters beyond a celebrity detail

The Max spread is not just a tabloid curiosity because its dating became entangled with public scrutiny over Melania Trump’s immigration history during the 2016 campaign; fact‑checking of the timeline and subsequent corrections illustrate how archival modeling work can intersect with legal and political narratives ^{[2] [7]}. Different outlets’ framing — from “artful” to “raunchy” — also shows how editorial choices shape the story around the same images ^{[5] [3]}.

Sources cited: reporting from Us Weekly, CNN, Politico, Daily Mail, GQ and others as summarized above ^{[1] [5] [9] [2] [7] [6] [8] [3] [4]}.