Björk, 2005
English text
for photographers to work with, until
the day I finally decided to do the
photos myself. That’s how I got into
the saddle. When I started out, I had
zero knowledge of the history of pho-
tography: I’d never heard of Richard
Avedon or Irving Penn. Which per-
haps wasn’t such a bad thing to the
extent that it can be rather paralyzing
to see others’ work – sometimes it’s
better to use your instinct without
knowing it. I remember that I had a
hang-up about my origins, since I
came from the 93 and everyone else
at Publicis had gone to [the graph-
ic-art school] Penninghen. England
had shaped me differently. Whenever
an English illustrator or photographer
came over to show their portfolio,
they always asked me to be present
because I spoke perfect Cockneywhereas they all stuttered away in
bad Franglais. Anyway, long story
short, the photographers at the time- Avedon, Penn, Guy Bourdin, David
Bailey – all had their own studios and
labs where they developed their own
rolls of film and made their own prints.
Which wasn’t at all my case. So
I started out using a Polaroid – they’d
just launched the SX-70 – which was
a miracle, and which allowed me to
train my eye in the same way people
today do so with their iPhone and
Instagram. I started to have a bit of
success because the way I saw
women was not as a girl in a harness
or a little redhead with blusher and
fuzzy hair...
Well that’s Helmut Newton and
Guy Bourdin taken care of...
Two giant photographers whose work
I wasn’t so familiar with. For me, a girl
of my generation was more likely to
have short hair or to shave her head,
because I hung out with punks in
London and with the whole gang at
the Palace in Paris and saw what the
generation to come would be like.
I felt – and I still do – a certain tender-
ness for women who are a bit rock
chick and androgynous, which pho-
tographers who preceded me didn’t
seem to feel, however good theirwork was. I was fresh – youth has that
strength, it takes what’s been done
and regurgitates it naively but with
passion. Afterwards, I was lucky
enough to work for studios that had
been opened by the press, one of the
first being [Daniel] Filipacchi’s in the
Rue des Acacias funnily enough.You’re rambling, it’s awful! Let’s
get back to the Jean Paul Gaultier
ad if you don’t mind.
I was just getting there. While certain
publications – Façade, which was the
magazine of Le Palace, i-D, The Face,
Actuel, etc. – allowed me to develop
my photography, and certain TV sta-
tions – M6 and MTV in particular –
gave me the chance to experiment
with film, it was advertising that
taught me art direction. For years,couture houses like Patou or Yves
Saint Laurent would only bring out a
perfume every ten years. With Calvin
Klein came the explosion – just by
selling a few pairs of men’s briefs he
managed to revolutionize the perfume
industry, and the old model went up
in smoke. All of a sudden perfume
was democratized in a way it hadn’t
been before. I knew Jean Paul, of
course, I’d done photos for him, and
we were given extraordinary freedom
when we made that ad. The perfume
had been entirely designed – scent,
bottle, packaging, art direction – by
Jean Paul himself. Everyone was wor-
ried about the launch, except him and
me. And they were all wrong, the per-
fume was extremely successful.How did you develop the technical
side of things for the sumptuous
video you shot for Boy George’s
single To Be Reborn in 1987?
I’d already had the idea. And my
ideas are above all linked to people
far more than to technology, which
is only ever there to reinforce the
message you’re trying to get across.
It so happened that at that moment
in time Boy George wasn’t doing so
well. And when he asked me to work
with him on this track, I immediately
said to myself that he neededtactfulness and tenderness. That’s
why I decided to have a little girl’s
hand tenderly turning the pages of
a photo album as well as the leaves
of tracing paper separating each
page... I wanted to bring in a certain
purity at a point in time when the
press were attacking him as a
drugged-out washed-up old fag.
I wanted to bring him redemption.
For To Be Reborn, I asked people in
Paris who were experimenting with
3D to superimpose shots of him
singing onto blue pages. Since you
also needed to take into account the
play of transparency of the tracing
paper, it certainly wasn’t easy, but
the result, for the time, was excep-
tional. Where technology is con-
cerned, I’ve always wanted to move
forward, to move things forward,
both through curiosity and gour-
mandise. Where people stop, I get
bored. And everything that stops
me – success, recognition, praise,
exhibitions – leaves me perplexed
as to what to do about it.And was Madonna nice or not?
[Laughs.] What an old-hairdresser
question! Are you nice at work? It’s
not what I’ve been told. Do we really
need to know if people who do inter-
esting stuff are nice? Why the hellshould you care? Are you planning a
cruise to Corsica with her? Somehow
I doubt it.Once and for all, can you tell us
why Madonna runs away with the
kid at the end of the video you
shot for Open Your Heart in 1986?
It was another example of redemp-
tion, a theme that’s closely linked to
my Catholic upbringing and which
comes back time and again in my
work. At the end of all my projects
I adore – j’adore like in Dior’s films –
giving the impression of a way out, an
escape, a salvation. It’s also because
personally I always look to run away
and not get myself caught.The video is amazing – where did
you shoot it?
In Los Angeles. It took two days. At
the time, artists and record compa-
nies – and me too, of course – were
all very excited to be able to shoot a
video for MTV, and to get close to the
magic of the movies. That isn’t really
the case anymore today.Who was the most odious editor
you ever worked with?
The odious ones don’t last, so I don’t
remember. But I think you’d better
watch out!
291“When I started out, I had zero
knowledge of the history of
photography: I’d never heard of
Richard Avedon or Irving Penn.”