From The Straits Times    |

Read our special excerpt from an interview top fashion photographer Nick Night gave to AnOther Magazine as part of its ‘Conversations with leading cultural figures’ series:

Digital culture has inspired and motivated both Nick Knight and Nicola Formichetti since the beginning of their prestigious careers. Having collaborated on a number of projects, Formichetti chose to enlist Knight and SHOWstudio to create campaign imagery for his inaugural capsule collection at Diesel, which plays tribute to the brand’s 35-year archive and precedes his highly anticipated show debut in March 2014.

Top photographer Nick Knight talks about the changing face of fashion photography DECOR 1#DIESELTRIBUTE campaign by Nicola Formichetti and Nick Knight

It’s a campaign in the most modern guise – rather than shooting six months before and running them in print magazines, the latest visuals were shot a few weeks ago. “Created purely for the digital community,” explains Formichetti, featuring non-models such as performance artist Mykki Blanco. Fitting then, that Knight chose to shoot the entire campaign using an iPhone and a couple of image-manipulation apps.

In an exclusive interview with AnOther, Knight speaks candidly about the transition from Hasselblad to iPhone; his favourite apps and his fascination with Instagram.

NICK KNIGHT ON … THE FREEDOM OF A CAMERA PHONE

Top photographer Nick Knight talks about the changing face of fashion photography DECOR 2Roses from my garden by Nick Knight (via Instagram) and #DIESELTRIBUTE campaign by Nicola Formichetti and Nick Knight (above right). Images: AnOther Magazine

“Photography was always introduced as a people’s medium, but actually it wasn’t at the start. When I first picked up a camera, it was quite unusual for a household to have more than one camera. Now everyone has one. Essentially, an iPhone camera is as good as the Hasselblad I used to use.

“There’s a weird judgement that comes involved with imagery in that people think every image needs to be ‘high resolution’. One doesn’t apply that restriction to a painting. That criteria isn’t used for anything except for photography. But I don’t say I create photographs anymore, I prefer to say imagery.

“If the image works, then who cares how many pixels it has? There doesn’t seem any sense in having limitations on what kind of image capture sources we use. I’m increasingly using an iPhone – it gives me so much freedom.
For twenty years, I shot on an 8×10 camera which is physically very difficult – it’s a heavy piece of machinery not intended to be moved around. In the early 1960s, photographers such as William Klein were taking 35mm cameras and going onto the streets to photograph girls.

“It was a new sense of freedom – literally the Swinging Sixties if you think about the movement a small, lighter camera enabled. The image capture device debate is both interesting and not interesting. I’m not that interested in the camera, more in the human engagement between oneself and the subject. What is really key is the person and what you are trying to convey about that person or get from them.”

You can read the complete interview with Nick Night at www.anothermag.com/Nick_Knight_on_the_Changing_Face_of_Fashion_Photography. For more information about AnOther Magazine, go to www.anothermag.com. You can follow Nick Knight on Instagram at @showstudio_nick_knight.