Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/726108
Where does your work fall within those categories? In academic terms, yes, there's a difference, but I prefer not to make distinctions about what constitutes art or fashion photography. Often the line between them blurs. The questions I ask myself when judging a photograph are: Does it intrigue me? Does it surprise me? Your book has a lot of incredible candid shots of fashion icons. Did you have any difficulty securing access to your subjects? Access is a challenge at Fashion Week all of the time—I always want to get close, and I always want to be able to move. I believe in making the most out of what you have at the time. I believe that pictures can happen anywhere. The question of nature versus artifice comes through in your compositions, and also your attention to details such as patterning. I'm thinking about the photograph of makeup brushes in a case patterned with grass. Can you tell me more about that? Yes, I love juxtapositions, and I love moments or details that are beautiful but strange to me—or better said: that look strange when photographed. Fashion Week is filled with those moments if you're looking closely. I believe in the idea of looking for questions in a photograph instead of answers. The candid images in this book are often less than glamorous: the rows of photographers in suits designed to protect their clothes from wet paint, the Louvre reflected in the warped mirrored Dior building constructed for a fashion show, a hair extension on a table after a show. Did you begin this book as a critique of image- making? No. This book is not at all a critique of image-making, or of fashion. I never set out with preconceived notions of a subject or of a photograph. I photograph in an instinctual way, responding to what is in front of me. I have an idea of what I am looking for—color, humor, gesture, beauty, mystery—but I never know exactly what it is until I see it. I have found that the most interesting images often reside within the edges of an event—and from before or after the spectacle has occurred. Is the fashion world able to laugh at itself? Yes, it certainly is. I experienced many examples of that. However, when the show is about to start, and careers, reputations and dollars are on the line, it is no laughing matter. BAL HARBOUR 187 Guo Pei Couture, Paris, 2016