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Vogue's Grace Coddington Reveals Her All-Time Favorite Fashion Photographers—and Why
Grace Coddington by Tom Newton
In her role as creative director of American Vogue for more than 25 years, the fashion impresario Grace Coddington
is largely responsible for the distinctive visual identity of the
publication, especially the complex and narrative-driven shoots that
have become its bread and butter. Such involved (and expensive)
productions naturally call for top-tier photographic talent, and Coddington knows where to find them. In honor of New York Fashion Week and the publication of Phaidon’s monograph Grace: The American Vogue Years, we’ve excerpted Coddington’s thoughts on five of her most trusted fashion photographers. Note that these are just a few of her favorites—buy the book using the link above to read her take on all of them.
DAVID SIMS
David Sims first caught my eye in the early 1990s. He was one of the
new band of photographers signed up by my friend Liz Tilberis, the
freshly appointed editor in chief of
Harper’s Bazaar. Everyone
was taking note of the radical changes she was making to the magazine.
In particular, they talked about the influx of young photographers—Craig
McDean, David, and Mario Sorrenti—with their cool, new attitude. I,
too, found this interesting and not, in fact, dissimilar to the
impression that young photographers such as David Bailey, Terence
Donovan, and Brian Duffy made on 1960s London.
David has no interest in the superfluous and is instinctively
inclined to strip down a fashion photograph to its minimum, leaving only
what is strictly necessary, such as volume and silhouette. His pictures
convey a sort of refined formality. His model is a woman with attitude.
She has a realness about her and possesses a strong, boyish look.
Raquel Zimmermann in Chanel Haute Couture. Paris, October 2007
He is not too keen on accessories, although, strangely enough, he
goes to great pains to show the shoes. This, of course, leaves me
feeling extremely happy because, in my opinion, the shoes are
all-important. They define the look and ground the picture.
When I began working with David, he was known to prefer shooting in
the studio, where he had absolute control. After several seasons of
backdrops, white through gray, he agreed to photograph the couture in a
beautiful
hôtel particulier. It was the year I was being followed by the director R. J. Cutler and his team filming
The September Issue,
and, much to my amusement, they arrived on our set (glimpses of which
appear in the movie) while our model Raquel Zimmermann was stuffing
herself with a plate of rich, creamy cakes.
Caroline Trentini in Rodarte. London, September 2014
Since that moment, getting David to work outside has been less of a
challenge. For a story in the mood of Vita Sackville-West, he at first
seemed awkward in the lovely formal garden we had booked. Then, just
beyond it, he spied a meadow filled with wild poppies. He loved it.
After shooting just one picture there, however, he moved on to the even
simpler setting of an empty field beyond.
War Horse was a shoot that happened mostly because of Anna’s
love of theater. She very much liked Jeremy Irvine, the babyfaced actor
who appeared in the play and the film. But, as I pointed out, it was
hardly an ideal inspiration for a fashion magazine, since there were no
women on the battlefield. We shot on Dartmoor, a sprawling country
stretch creased with romantically ancient crags and studded with rocks
caked in lichen. Ever the minimalist, David shot almost the entire story
from very low angles so that much of what remained was a lowering gray
sky over humps of rugged earth. Again, it was that rejection of
location, but with just enough dramatic terrain included to draw you in.
Arizona Muse in Alexander McQueen. England, November 2011
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
Whether we’re shooting models or actors—or Kim Kardashian and Kanye
West— working with Annie Leibovitz is like making a major movie. And she
is very much that movie’s director. She has such a great reputation
that even the most famous film stars fall over themselves to be
photographed by her. She also likes to connect with the worlds of
theater and art. So a wealth of planning is involved, which can be an
agonizingly stressful process and often calls for an amazing number of
situations to be created in just two or three days by the hardworking
set designer, Mary Howard.
Natalia Vodianova and John Galliano in Dior Haute Couture. Paris, December 2003
Alice in Wonderland is one of the most important fashion
narratives I have ever done. It was Anna who suggested that all the
major designers should be the story’s characters and incorporated into
the photos, while Annie and I had fun matching them to their storybook
counterparts. At the time, I found myself becoming so immersed in the
project that I frequently felt as though I had fallen down the rabbit
hole myself.
Keira Knightley in Balenciaga and Brice Marden. New York, December 2005
Keira Knightley made a memorable Dorothy in our remake of
The Wizard of Oz, which also substituted a number of contemporary artists, including
Jasper Johns,
John Currin,
Brice Marden, and
Jeff Koons,
for the story’s familiar protagonists: the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man,
the Scarecrow, and the Winged Monkey. Keira is a pleasure to work with.
She never complains or behaves like a superstar. And she has appeared in
so many costume dramas that she’s entirely comfortable being dressed up
in fancy clothes.
For “Hansel and Gretel,” the young actor Andrew Garfield, who was starring in
The Amazing Spider-Man,
flew in from London to shoot with Lily Cole. Once again, it was Anna
who found our witch, Lady Gaga, who happened to be visiting the Vogue
offices at the time we were casting. She showed up on set the next day
wearing a long rubber coat with absolutely nothing underneath. No one
knew quite what to say.
Lily
Cole in Yves Saint Laurent, Andrew Garfield in Maison Martin Margiela
and Ann Demeulemeester, and Lady Gaga in Marc Jacobs. New York, December
2009
MARIO TESTINO
Daria Werbowy in Burberry Prorsum and Jimmy Fallon. New York, October 2009
Mario Testino loves traveling. His life is all about jumping off one
plane and onto another. He knows the best restaurants in any given town,
and always manages to keep the mood up, up, up. His pictures have an
infectious sort of vibrancy, bursting with a love of life not often seen
in fashion photography today.
He sometimes tries to persuade me to make my work look hot and
sexy—not very me. But I adore his humor. He’s totally comfortable
shooting offbeat personalities—Jimmy Fallon munching on an oversize
pastrami sandwich at Katz’s deli, or the painter
George Condo chasing Daria round and round a country meadow. This is where we very much connect.
Stella Tennant in Anne Klein and Isabella Campbell, Lady Cawdor, in Max Mara. Scotland, October 2005
Mario can also photograph children very well because they think of
him as a favorite uncle. He’s great at family pictures, like our story
with Natalia and her children and then husband on a summer’s day in the
English countryside, or Stella Tennant with her family, whom he
photographed at home in the Scottish Borders. Having recently had her
fourth baby, Stella was living in an idyllic little stone house full of
unfussy furniture, perfect for young children running to and fro in
muddy shoes. It had a really charming, familial feel about it, which
Mario captured to perfection. Who else would be given such trust that he
could witness Stella and all four children together in the bathtub?
Stella Tennant. Scotland, October 2005
MERT ALAS & MARCUS PIGGOTT
Lara Stone in Louis Vuitton. New York, September 2010
Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, the madcap Turkish/Welsh duo,
specialize in flawless pinups, smoothed and lifted thanks to perfectly
executed Photoshop. The sun always shines in their blue heaven, and
their woman is a golden goddess. Their graphic eye and assured use of
saturated color give their images an ultramodern look, yet their work
can also be utterly romantic and painterly.
They have a preference for supermodels, whom they make even more
glamorous by digitally exaggerating their silhouettes, re-creating hair,
and minimizing waists in a technique that is almost like sculpting.
They are obsessed with making everything look beyond perfect and a bit
surreal. So when they say, “Do you want more hair to the side?” or “Do
you want the breasts a little higher? C cup? D cup?” they literally mold
the girl into what is desired.
Kendall Jenner in Louis Vuitton. London, December 2015
Rather than forming part of an extended story, each of their pictures
contains its own fragmented sort of narrative, whether it’s a riff on
the 1950s sweater girl starring the curvaceous Lara Stone, or a vision
of the social media darling Kendall Jenner as a contemporary Alice in
Wonderland, stepping through the looking glass into cyberspace with
actors from London's National Theatre. (This was my second visit to the
world of Lewis Carroll, though this time around it had a very “now”
twist.)
M & M are tremendous fun to work with, although it can be
nerve-wracking when you get home and wait to see how they have
transformed the shoot. It may come back virtually unrecognizable—though
in a curiously compelling way. For example, we shot a psychedelic
reworking of
Little Red Riding Hood, starring Natalia, in a leafy green forest outside London on a summer’s day. The pictures came back autumnal and
Cocteau-esque, drenched in a scarlet haze, something I would never have imagined but that I absolutely love.
Natalia Vodianova in Ann Demeulemeester and wolf in Tom Ford. United Kingdom, September 2009
ARTHUR ELGORT
Arthur Elgort’s pictures are about the moment. He just dives in.
While I am very linear, with a tendency to line everything up—model,
props, background, etc.— Arthur can break all this and still respect the
creative narrative. He fills his images with life; there’s an
effervescence to them that lifts the spirits. His playful story shot in
the mood of Lartigue, in Long Island with Karen—a particular favorite
redhead of mine—is a case in point. I stole the idea of putting faces
painted on brown paper bags pulled over the models’ heads from a
collaboration between Saul Steinberg and Inge Morath. I had my friend
Michael Roberts do the illustrations for me.
Karen Elson in Ralph Lauren Collection and male model in Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. New York, November 2003
As someone with an eye for the spontaneous, Arthur is unique and
irreplaceable. One photo session we worked on portrayed the weekend
downtime of a modern American family in all its day-to-day mundanity.
With wonderful ease, Arthur embraced all the details, reinventing
Americana with a very contemporary attitude. Karlie Kloss, whom he
adores, played a housewife in the blue-collar community of Atlantic
Beach, and the children in the picture were borrowed from our makeup
artist, Gucci Westman.
A classic Arthur shoot, reflecting his love of cowboys, was our trip
to El Mirage, a dry lake outside LA, for a take on Arthur Miller’s
The Misfits starring
Isabeli Fontana and her real-life baby and then husband. We even
managed to squeeze Arthur, as our director, into a group shot, wearing
his signature beret and neckerchief.
Isabeli Fontana in Moschino and Miu Miu, Alvaro Jacomossi, and Arthur Elgort. Los Angeles, February 2004
We invited the musician André 3000 to be the partner of Liya Kebede
in a story inspired by the dance pictures of the Malian photographer
Malick Sidibé. André proved to be not only a great dancer but also a
fabulous model. He’s a truly creative dresser and came with his own
wardrobe, coordinating it with each of Liya’s looks.
For another story, we photographed Keira Knightley “on safari” in
Kenya. One snap showed her tending to a young, motherless pachyderm at
David Sheldrick’s elephant orphanage outside Nairobi. But not before we
swapped its coverlet for a more fashion-forward Louis Vuitton blanket.
Liya Kebede in Bottega Veneta and André 3000. New York, January 2005
