Trends in fashion photography can change as quickly as fashion itself. But Francesco Scavullo understood what was constant: beauty. Best known for creating the seductive covers of Cosmopolitan for more than three decades, Scavullo was a ubiquitous presence on the fashion landscape for more than 50 years, working until his death at age 82 in 2004.

Tonight, his peers and admirers gather for the opening of a retrospective exhibition and benefit auction at Sotheby’s. Fans of Burt Reynolds may be disappointed to know that the Cosmo centerfold of the actor on a bearskin rug is not up for auction. But the vintage works that are for sale include portraits of Christy Turlington (1990) and Karl Lagerfeld (1977), as well as an outdoor fashion photograph, “Dorothea McGowan and Boy” (1966). The sales will benefit Fountain House, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping men and women with mental illness.

That the auction will benefit this charity is fitting.Though Scavullo once described his own works as “optimistic, with a positive feeling to them,” that wasn’t exactly his personal story. In 1981, after four nervous breakdowns, Scavullo was diagnosed as manic-depressive. He credited the manic highs as “contributing greatly” to his creative work.

One friend, Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan, never knew of his condition – and suspects that few, if any, of his colleagues did, either. “He never missed a beat,” she said, adding that he was unfailingly patient, running in and out of his subjects’ dressing rooms to soothe and flatter them.

What his colleagues and subjects did know was his attention to detail and his trademark eye. Together with his longtime stylist and companion, Sean Byrnes, Scavullo managed every shoot down to the last detail, from choosing the model and selecting her provocative clothes to supervising her (usually voluminous) hairstyle and makeup.

The glamour, beauty, and sex appeal became Scavullo’s signature. And it was a taste that he developed early on. As a 12-year-old boy, the future photographer went with his grandfather to see “Queen Christina.” As the story goes, the moment Greta Garbo made her entrance, the youngster sprinted to the screen, reaching for the Swedish Sphinx exclaiming, “I want her! I want her!”

So he did what any resourceful and ambitious 12-year-old Staten Islander would do: He coiffed, painted, and styled his sisters before photographing them in the home studio their mother set up for young Scavullo.

Early in his career, Scavullo pioneered innovative lighting techniques that helped glamorize his subjects, a lesson learned, perhaps, from his mentor and friend, the photographer Horst P. Horst. “There was Avedon’s harsh, gritty reality, and then there was Scavullo, who never detracted from the beauty of the subject – he heightened it with really soft light,” Bazaar magazine’s fashion news/features director, Kristina O’Neill, said.

“He had the ability to get out of every woman – not just models but civilian women like me – what nobody else could,” Ms. Brown said.”He made you feel gorgeous.He made you come on to the camera, as though you were talking to a lover.”

In addition to his long association with Cosmopolitan, Scavullo worked for almost every major women’s magazine and shot covers for People, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Interview. His books include “Scavullo on Beauty,” “Scavullo on Men,” “Scavullo Women,” and “Scavullo Nudes.” His photos are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA.

Casting models was one of Scavullo and Mr. Byrnes’s great talents, so much so that Ms. Brown would teasingly accuse them of hanging out at the Port Authority in order to get fresh talent right off the bus from Oklahoma. Some Scavullo models later went on to supermodeldom and careers in television and film, including Rene Russo, Farrah Fawcett, and Brooke Shields, who called Scavullo Uncle Frank. More tragically, when the model Gia Carangi, whom he also discovered, suffered from a heroin addiction and was unable to find work, the photographer continued to employ her. He supported her until she died of AIDS.

Scavullo also shot portraits of such personalities as Sting portrayed as Jesus, Janis Joplin – his favorite subject – and Ravi Shankar. Mr. Byrnes recalls that their studio time with the latter was their “most moving sitting. He played the sitar. It was a personal concert for Frankie and me. It was a dark studio, with a single light source, and it was haunting.”

Scavullo’s influence is readily apparent today in the work of such portrait photographers as Annie Leibovitz and Patrick Demarchelier. In contrast to the early ’60s, when cover models were often pictured as sphinx-like as Garbo, Scavullo pioneered approachable accessibility. And then, in a seemingly counterintuitive maneuver, he made beautiful people more beautiful.

And at tonight’s auction, there will be no shortage of beautiful people looking at photographs of beautiful people. The benefit committee – which includes Zani Gugelmann, Tinsley Mortimer, Ivanka Trump, and Christy Turlington – is a who’s-who of fashionable New York. Speakers will include the editor in chief of Town & Country, Pamela Fiori, Ms. Brown, and Ms. Russo.

And if the crowd is looking glamorous, it’s something that Scavullo would have loved. “Look at the way celebrities have gotten very accustomed to looking beautiful, to being part of the magic of being elevated,” Ms. O’Neill said. “That’s Scavullo.”