(light music)
- Well, I don't usually do commissions,
but I think when I haven't been working,
when I feel like I need some sort of project
to challenge me, to force me to start working,
I sometimes will just accept it,
because I have a real deadline to force me to get going.
It was through a friend of mine who represents Balenciaga,
asked me if I wanted to do some shots for French Vogue,
and I said, my sort of stipulation is,
as long as you can lend me the clothes for weeks at a time
and I don't have that kind of pressure that,
normally, I think commercial photographers
shoot everything in one day,
and I said, no, I need the clothes for longer,
and so they were totally cool with that.
I wanted it to look like these are people
who happen to be wearing Balenciaga at some groovy parties.
Maybe they work in the fashion business,
or maybe they would like to be working
in the fashion business.
I was trying to sort of make it look
as if they're shot with flash.
The backgrounds are all digitally added
with just shots of people in restaurants and bars,
and that was kind of what this series started out as,
and then I subsequently blew up one of these large
to see how it would hold up as a work of art,
and it didn't look good with the backgrounds,
so I wound up going back
and completely changing the backgrounds,
and they sort of now have a new life
as different sort of pictures.
Still somewhat as if they're from parties,
but in some cases even more so,
because I added these flash effects.
And it was actually the first time I tried shooting
with the digital camera. I borrowed a friend's camera,
and I was kind of nervous about that, too.
Now I'm suddenly experimenting with a digital camera,
and I don't really know how to use it,
and does it work the same with the lights?
And then I have to set it up
to look at my computer while I'm shooting,
and it was all kind of touch and go in the beginning
and a little scary, but once I was into it,
it was just like, I'm a total convert.
I threw out all my film
and I'm ready to get rid of my cameras,
and I would just never go back to film.