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FAST FORWA R D His legacy invokes the ultimate in 90s nostalgia. But with his cinematic stills, Glen Luchford keeps moving ahead of the now. Words Edwina Hagon PHOTOGRAPHY Glen Luchford Kate Moss, Harper’s Bazaar, 1994. ARTS “I fear the future as much as the next person. Then again, I’m eager to embrace it.” t’s good to fuck up,” says Glen “I misjudged the exposure for the than ever. Most recently he’s collaborated Luchford. “You carry it with you extension tubes and the film was under- with Gucci creative director Alessandro Amber Valletta, Prada AW 1997. into every job … Obviously as the exposed. As a colour image it was ruined. Michele in his revival of the brand, this “Iyears go by you reduce it, but you never stop I believe it was my first cover for The eccentric visual realistion of unapologetic the learning curve, you just minimalise.” Face magazine. I was so frustrated that I opulence, rich colours and Renaissance- The British fashion photographer and film kicked the filing cabinet in my darkroom centric embellishment setting the tone for director is reminiscing, but not in a gushy, and broke my foot,” recalls Luchford. the industry at large. sentimental way – no. His reflections Fortunately, all was not lost and Luchford, From fashion’s foremost glossies to embody a far more matter-of-fact, no- not one to admit defeat, was able to work sweeping billboards to the chalky whites of nonsense kind of charm; a refreshingly the negative in black and white. To this gallery walls including New York’s MoMA frank quality that visibly mirrors the day, the salvaged image remains one of his PS1, Gagosian Gallery and the Victoria & photographer’s dexterity and earnest favourite of the Icelandic iconoclast. “It Albert Museum in London, Luchford’s approach to his craft – an approach that looked great … But yes, I learnt to expose images have proven inexhaustible and has carried the Brighton-born self-taught 10x8 properly after that ... I still have unconstrained in their artistry. Like image maker from early snapshots of his occasional pain in my foot ...” a beautiful melody we just can’t stop New Romantic friends in a post-punk No more than a year later, the young humming, they lodge themselves deep in our UK, to the gritty, grunge spirit that came lensman found himself on the streets of consciousness, shaping a cinematic rhapsody to define 90s Brit fashion, through to New York shooting an equally fresh- that time after time summons the narrator the hauntingly soft and cinematic avant- faced Kate Moss for the American chapter within, albeit a renegade tale that even its garde campaign for Prada in ’97 that cast of Harper’s Bazaar. Leaning somewhat creator did not write the script for. “If a a languid Amber Valletta against the ever naively on his experience with The Face, connection between one image or another diminishing evening light in little more Luchford set to work and, as the story goes, somehow tells a story then I guess I’m OK than a wooden boat and a silk slip. A was fired from the magazine – his images with that. Why not? But I’ve never once sat campaign that remains one of Prada’s most deemed inappropriate for the title’s high down and thought that tomorrow I’ll try memorable to date, and for Luchford, one fashion dialogue. and tell this story to the audience. Definitely that proved monumental in launching him Despite this early setback, his shoot-from- not,” says Luchford. hard and fast into the sartorial sanatorium. the-hip naturalism and cinematic tone did However, you need only spend a short The “fuck up” to which Luchford is in not go unnoticed, particularly by Miuccia amount of time with the now Brooklyn- this case referring dates back to ’93 and Prada who signed him exclusively for the based photographer to recognise that an places the then 25-year-old upstart behind brand, something unheard of now. Indeed he unwavering love of cinema could very well the lens of a 10x8 plate camera shooting went on to accrue an unrivalled catalogue be behind that highly effusive visual language for seminal fashion bible The Face. His of clients including Yves Saint Laurent, that has cemented him as one of the most subject, the indelibly impish Björk, has eyes Chloé and Calvin Klein, and after more in-demand photographers of our time. “I do fixed to camera, her jet-black hair bound than three decades in the business, Luchford sample imagery like a DJ, I suppose, stealing atop her head in those so-90s bantu knots has irrefutably earned his legacy as one of the odd film still or record cover, then mush Kate Moss, Harper’s Bazaar, 1994. that only an elfin-shaped face like hers those iconic image-makers in the fashion it about and see what comes out. Sometimes could ever truly pull off. and art scene, his work more relevant it works and others it really doesn’t, but it’s 67 header ARTS , 1993. 1993. , The Face Björk, Björk, “We’ll have to see how the industry unfolds in the coming years ... Will the radical commercialisation make it unbearable, or really exciting? Who the hell knows?... These kinds of things don’t keep me up at night.” fun to try,” says Luchford. He points to the game. “I’m 16 years in at this point. Working with the unveiling of various projects. films of the 70s – “It was truly a magical with negative is totally foreign to me now. There has been the 2001 feature Here to moment in cinema. And the end also of the Luckily the change has been incremental Where, the 2009 release of Glen Luchford: great auteur” – but above all, is drawn to so I’ve grown a tolerance to it as the years Pictorialism, a diaristic style monograph cinema in its totality. “You look at L’Atalante proceed,” he says. “Had it all come at once, that chronicles the prolific lensman’s three- by Jean Vigo, for example, that was in 1934 I’d have probably just cried a lot.” decade-long career, and more recently, and it seems so fresh and brilliant, too. So I’m As Luchford tells, humour is a necessary the opening of The Rose Hotel in Venice not sure. I think I draw from all genres of film tool in this modern era, especially with the Beach, California, for which Luchford and moving footage,” he says. onset of social media and the ever-growing assumed yet another designation: hotelier. Perhaps then it’s not surprising to hear demand for additional imagery. “The And there are new projects aplenty. “I’ve that in 2001, Luchford made his directorial stress builds to such a level that I see the been talking to one of the larger museums debut with the award-nominated film Here art director and crew get even more and about a project that sounds very exciting, to Where. But as for features, this is where more pent up until something snaps, then and I have two books, one is about my long- the story ends. For now, anyway. “Maybe, you all somehow find a way to laugh at it,” term friend and lighting tech Jack Webb, it’s why not. I’d never say never … If the right he says. “Most of my advertising shoots a comedy, but still in progress that [English script dropped in my lap, I’m sure I’d jump now feel more like a circus than a photo television and stage actor] Chris Simmons in, yes.” For a mind like Luchford’s that shoot – multiple layers of crews attacking is working on,” he says. champions serendipity over forethought, all the different elements – film, stills, social “I’m always searching. Every day I surf texture over craft, and immediacy over media assets, etcetera, etcetera – so I try the web looking for new things to get me strategy, if any one thing were to keep him to work unconsciously, or rather trust my motivated.” Right now, it is a project a from once again sitting in the director’s chair unconscious. I can hear my crew asking me little closer to home that is keeping him it would surely be the lengthy development questions and I know I’m responding, but occupied. “I’m trying to grow tomatoes time, which is known to take years. “I’m all I have no idea what I’m saying – a series in my greenhouse, which is very difficult go go go, so when the producer says to me of nods and smiles. Then they walk away – to others, a no brainer, I’m sure. So I’m he’s looking at getting this into production looking content and I think, wow, I hope spending a lot of time staring at them, in 2019 I think, Lord, that’s a long time, how I didn’t just agree to something important. watching the leaves change. I think I’m about next weekend, or tomorrow?” How can you really respond to 300 to 400 over-watering.” Whether by nature or nurture, Luchford’s questions a day and be accurate in your As for the future? “We’ll have to see how appetite for perpetual forward motion has response all the time? So I try to stay in a the industry unfolds in the coming years ... kept him undeniably current in a fast-paced floaty kind of zone … I don’t mean to be Will the radical commercialisation make it industry, proving elastic when it comes disrespectful when I say that, I take my job unbearable, or really exciting? Who the hell to the constant need for adaptation that a very seriously, but if I tried to analyse every knows? Do I want to shoot celebrities all three-decade-long career is sure to bring – question posed to me, my brain would just the time? Hard to say.