Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1507768
SOPHIE: Let's move on to the next picture. Do you think we should do ballet? ARTHUR: Yeah, and I'll tell you why. Because I was a ballet photographer first. Back then, my brother said, "I think what you're doing is beautiful, but what about fashion instead? Think of fashion as dance." SOPHIE: Why did he want you to do fashion instead of ballet—he thought you could make more money? ARTHUR: Yeah, he didn't want me to be a waiter forever. So I started working for SOPHIE: Okay, so tell me about this one. This is Linda Evangelista, 1991, in Scotland. I remember we included this one for our Instagram series, Behind the Lens with Arthur Elgort. ARTHUR: Linda gets into the mood of everything and figures out what she can do... She makes it a little more fun. She makes it an interesting picture. And not only that, if you really look carefully, it was raining out, but you can't see. SOPHIE: You can't tell. ARTHUR: Look at the colors. SOPHIE: Beautiful. ARTHUR: And the bagpiper didn't know that Linda was not kicking him, but… SOPHIE: Was he just walking there randomly or he was an extra? ARTHUR: No, I told them where to stand. I said, "I want a double page spread, so you go here and you go here. Don't come too close because it's a double page." SOPHIE: And they'd end up in the gutter, otherwise. ARTHUR: Exactly. I took maybe five pictures of it and I was finished. SOPHIE: Obviously at this point, in 1991, you were using film. It's so colorful. What kind of film do you think you were using? ARTHUR: Kodachrome. Beautiful. And now they don't have Kodachrome because they say it's not good for the environment. SOPHIE: I mean, the colors, you can't get that now. ARTHUR: I don't think you can get that in digital. [fashion photographer] Gus Peterson at his studio. But even when I was on a shoot, I still tried to get ballet in…. It's like this picture, when I was shooting for Vogue with Christy Turlington, I would say we're going to [the ballet] school to shoot Christy with the dancers…but I didn't really want that. SOPHIE: Yeah, yeah. So you would say it was, like, part of the shoot but really, you were trying to get some personal work in there also. Well it's beautiful. ARTHUR: Could be worse, right? Linda Evangelista in Scotland, Vogue, 1991 Students at Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1999, from "Ballet," (Steidl) LINDA GETS INTO THE MOOD... SHE MAKES IT A LITTLE MORE FUN. SHE MAKES IT AN INTERESTING PICTURE. 128 BAL HARBOUR