Suzie Smoking highlights how image maker Nick Knight focuses on the movement of models, clothing and props in his work.Nick Knight
There are many awards handed out in the world of fashion, but perhaps none as revered as the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator, which was presented this past week at the annual British Fashion Awards. Named for the eccentric and inimitable style icon who took her own life in 2007, the award honours visionaries who help push fashion forward. On that front, British photographer Nick Knight definitely deserves the nod he received this year. Knight is known for his arresting fashion imagery and powerful take on unconventional beauty. He's shot editorials for everyone from Yohji Yamamoto to Yves St. Laurent, and his album covers for Björk, Seal and Grace Jones are just as noteworthy. Beyond photography, Knight is famous for having directed music videos, including Born this Way for Lady Gaga and Bound 2 for Kanye West. But it's his innovative online fashion broadcasting company, SHOWstudio, founded 15 years ago, that has most fashion tongues wagging. The site features an array of live fashion media, including films, which are his true passion. I spoke with the 57-year-old from London recently about the art of fashion, its newfound accessibility, and why it's entering its most exciting era.
The last time I spoke with you was at the McQueen show staged in honour of Isabella Blow, just after she had passed. You have worked hard to help keep her legacy alive. What was it about her that made you see the world in a different way?
That's a tough question to answer. The fact that she took risks, that she was a strong and courageous woman in many ways. She wouldn't care about what people would think, but would follow her emotions and follow her desires. She was somebody who was incredibly articulate and also incredibly cultured. I think that's a pretty powerful combination.
The way that you've celebrated diversity and unconventional beauty has been inspiring. Was that something that was always a driving factor for you?
I just follow my desires to be honest. I'm drawn to people who I think are attractive and interesting. But I'm not purposely doing something that I think is different – I'm just doing what I want to do. There's no shortage of amazing people one would want to photograph, or work with, or spend time with. Whether it's musicians, or actors, or whether it's people you see in the street, people are inherently fascinating. There is such a richness of people around and now with the Internet, we've got such a good system to see each other. Often how I find people to work with is simply by going on Instagram.
Some feel that fashion has been watered down by all the information and social media coming at us.
I beg to differ. Now you've got a much more accessible, active, exciting, authentic fashion scene happening. I think fashion is a spontaneous art form that we all do. Everybody gets dressed in the morning on purpose. They wear the clothes that they wear because they're trying to say something about themselves, however great or small that desire is. But it's still in all of us. Now we have the ability to be able to see each other much more. I actually think that it's much better because it was such a narrow system before, and so clearly at odds with what people wanted. Hundreds of thousands of people might want to go to a fashion show, so why only let 300 people see it? When you can see the fashion shows live, designers can now actually talk straight to their audience. Why do they have to wait three months to see it in a magazine, or see an advertising campaign? You want it the moment you see it. My son, who's 18 now and is studying fashion merchandising at Parsons in Paris, actually can't believe that we used to have to wait three months after the fashion shows to be able to see anything that happened there.
I find your point of view incredibly refreshing, because there are a lot of people fretting over the future of fashion.
It's about to have it's biggest and most exciting period. It is so accessible now. People can pick up their phone, and create an image, and distribute it globally. Before, you had to jump through certain hoops to get your work out there. But when you're working for art, you just want to touch your audience. And that's a much more healthy position for art. Of course, the middlemen get pushed out. But I think that's probably not a bad thing to be honest. I think having a direct relationship with your audience is much more rewarding and I think it's actually much closer to what artists want.
What you've done with your SHOWStudio site has been rather brilliant. When you first started the site, did you have a big vision in mind or was this just a natural kind of evolution?
I knew exactly when I started it that I wanted to create a platform for fashion film much in the same way that Vogue a hundred years ago created a platform for fashion photography. I saw towards the end of the nineties that fashion film was very accessible, that a designer always created a garment to be seen in movement. So I've always thought that film is the best medium for showing fashion. It's a young medium. It's been going 15 years now, so I don't expect to see it perfectly defined. I don't think anybody quite knows the parameters of fashion film. It will find itself over time, in the same way that fashion photography took about 50 years to define itself.
How does the future bode for theatrical fashion presentations? Some are going the way of the dinosaur, but when we think back to some of those brilliant spectacles that Lee McQueen staged in those early days…
I think there are two different versions of the fashion show now. There's something that Gareth Pugh, for instance, would put on that would be a spectacle, like a piece of fashion theatre. Or, you go the way I've just gone with Tom Ford, and say, "Okay, I don't want to do a fashion show, I want to do a fashion film." Tom put out a fashion film and within the first day it had over a million hits. The second day, it had another million. I don't know if Tom would have had a million hits had he'd just done a conventional catwalk show. There are still some designers who are embracing the spectacle of theatre. Burberry did it in an interesting way 'cause you can actually buy from the catwalk, and that's obviously where it's going to go. But I don't know how sustainable that is to be honest.
This interview has been condensed and edited.