Kate Moss, Times Square, New York, negative 1994; print 2017, Glen Luchford, gelatin silver print
Gift of Glen and Tanya Luchford. © Glen Luchford
Transcript
[rhythmic pop music evoking period and mood]
GLEN LUCHFORD: Ninety-nine point nine percent of all fashion photographs is a girl in a studio, in a dress, just standing there trying to look interesting, and I never really had any interest in that. In my pictures I’m always looking for a moment.
[sound effects evoking New York City hustle and bustle: honking horns, cars, footsteps]
MALE NARRATOR: It’s a warm spring day in 1994 on the streets of Times Square in New York City. Cars and taxis honk as they crawl through traffic, and passersby ogle as model Kate Moss throws a punch at Glen Luchford, the photographer who captured this candid moment.
[music and sound effects end]
GLEN LUCHFORD: Yeah, she’s funny. She’s always had a pretty comedic personality and is very dedicated on set. When you ask her to do something, she’s pretty committed, as you can see in the picture. I mean, she was really embarrassed to stand there and pretend to box me for 20 minutes, but she still did it anyway. [sound effects evoking New York City hustle and bustle: honking horns, cars, footsteps] And what you don’t see is that people were obviously stopping and kind of laughing or walking by. But always amazing to photograph…even now.
[sound effects end]
MALE NARRATOR: This image was part of a series commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar, which was Luchford’s first big-budget editorial shoot. As it turned out, the magazine did not like his gritty, photojournalistic approach.
[rhythmic pop music evoking period and mood]
GLEN LUCHFORD: It did seem pretty exciting to be working for a large American publication, but I do remember looking at the polaroids thinking, “I don’t know if I’m going too far with this. I’m not sure the magazine’s really going to understand them,” which they didn’t. On that particular day, I guess what I was thinking is that I’m really interested in the landscape of where we’re photographing, and I really just don’t want her standing there in a dress, because the dress, to me, was not that interesting. So, how can I make this a kind of portrait about Kate that draws you in? I mean, it was nothing more complex than that, really.
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