[sound effects evoking backstage at a fashion show: heels clicking, various chatter]
MALE NARRATOR: Backstage, the Jean Paul Gaultier runway show is feverish. [camera shutter sound effects intertwined with muffled downtempo house music, like we’re hearing it from backstage] Models hastily change garments as an army of people make last minute adjustments. Assistants snip, stitch, and pin while hairstylists and makeup artists do quick touchups before sending the models down the catwalk [audience clapping sound effect]. And in the middle of it all is photographer William Klein.
[music and sound effects end]
GLEN LUCHFORD: These backstage pictures, I mean, we’ve seen a million pictures like this now, but at the time when these pictures came out they were quite shocking actually.
MALE NARRATOR: Los Angeles-based photographer, Glen Luchford, whose own work is featured in this exhibition, discusses this photograph:
[stylistic music evoking an experimental mood]
GLEN LUCHFORD: I really liked the way that he was getting a very wide-angle camera and just shoving it into the center of what was taking place. Which, you know, I still do that now. I just did it last week. We had 120 people on set and I just was in the middle of them letting them fill the frame.
MALE NARRATOR: Here, Klein used “slow film” ––or film with low light-sensitivity––and moved the camera during exposure, which resulted in these sweeping motion blurs. Many people would consider this a defect, but Klein preferred the unconventional.
GLEN LUCHFORD: I mean, he was kind of punk rock of his time.
[music ends]
MALE NARRATOR: Designer Jean Paul Gaultier was also considered a rebel of French fashion. He is famous for designing Madonna’s cone bra, and has become known for his irreverent take on fashion. Here, in this photograph from 1984, we can find the trademarks of his look––lingerie, sharp tailoring, and a bright white sailor hat.
