Nick Knight - biography and photos

Fashion is created by designers, designers are glorified by publishers of glossy magazines, viewers see only photographs and beautiful images of models. The audience sees the models, but only the way the photographers saw them. It so happened that model much more famous than photographers, the names of many of them are well known. Photographers are more in the shade.

Nick Knight is one of the photographers, one of the most famous photographers in the fashion world, one of the most influential fashion photographers of our time. Although he does not consider himself a photographer, if he does, then only a photographer from the future. And his photographs are always too avant-garde and bizarre, and very often futuristic. He is a tireless experimenter and workaholic who is unswervingly following all the technical innovations.

Nick Knight has shot for almost all the largest and most famous fashion houses. His photographs have appeared in all popular fashion magazines - Vogue, Harper's Bazaar ... He has photographed many celebrities - Kate moss, Bjork. His work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern and Saatchi.

Nick Knight was born in London in 1958. His parents are doctors - a physiotherapist and psychologist. And Nick, following his brother, was also going to follow in their footsteps, into medicine. But starting to study chemistry and biology in college, he realized that this was far from his. After all, he much more liked wandering the streets of London with a camera in his hands. And this was not just a way to observe this world, it was also another reason for meeting girls.

And soon he enters the Bournemouth-and-Poole College of Art and Design. In his thesis, Nick will present a series of black-and-white photographic portraits of Skinheads, and in 1982 these works of his will be released as a separate album. Nick himself, after graduating from college, was engaged in photographing little-known musical groups. But it is precisely those photographs from the Skinheads series that Robin Derrick, director of i-D magazine, will one day notice.

In 1985, Nick Knight receives an order for one hundred monochrome portraits for the anniversary issue of i-D magazine. For them, he will photograph regular visitors to the London club Taboo. And it is there that he will meet John Galliano.

Mark Ascoli, art director of i-D magazine, was impressed by the photographs Nick took and offers him work on Yohji Yamamoto's advertising catalog. Which Nick Knight worked on in 1986-1987. To participate in this project, he also brings in the artist Peter Saville. As a result, the catalog was a success, which brought Nick fame and the opportunity to further choose who to work with. Nick Knight's collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto will continue for about 10 more years.

Since 2000, Nick Knight has also started shooting music videos. So in 2011 he shot a video for the song "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. By the way, Lady Gaga has repeatedly appeared in his photographs.

In November 2000, Nick Knight launched the SHOWstudio.com internet project. An interactive site about fashion. After all, according to Nick Knight, the Internet is a powerful tool that can very well help designers to convey the ideas of their collections to a wide audience. SHOWstudio.com is known for both fashion films and live broadcasts of many events from the world of fashion, and many celebrities collaborate with the fashion site created by Nick Knight.

Nick Knight is married; he met his wife Charlotte in his own photo studio. Their marriage is strong enough, they have three children.

According to Nick Knight, he never thought about his own style, in his photographs he simply expresses his opinion. He has a camera, a little Leica, which he always carries with him, although recently it has been increasingly replaced by a mobile phone. He believes that digital technology is not bad at all, and always keeps up with the times. And in one of his interviews, Nick Knight noticed that he had no idea what else he could do besides photography, because it became not just his profession, but most of his life.