Starbucks should be my sponsor. With late nights and cold snaps occurring A LOT in my life recently, it seems a day doesn't go by without me touting a steaming green and white cup of commercial caffeine goodness. Today was no exception. After last night's escapades (see below) I made a bee-line for Starbucks and chugged back a grande mocha before meeting up with Kenny to go see Nick Knight's conversation with The Business of Fashion editor Imran Amed at The Hospital Club near Covent Garden. Thank God I did, because even with that caffeine shot, I have to admit, there were flickering moments when I thought I'd slip into a coma. Not that the interview was in any way boring. It was anything but. I was just ridiculously shattered. Luckily I didn't mortify myself in front of a room full of fashion peeps and stayed awake for the entire fascinating interview.
When I first discovered Knight would be involved in the Fashion Pioneers series following previous interviews with Jefferson Hack and Natalie Massenet, I did contemplate forking out for a ticket as I do consider Knight to be one of my photography heroes. But at 45 bucks a pop and my current case of poverty, I then had second thoughts. After all, there was going to be live streaming both on The Business of Fashion website and The SHOWstudio website, so I could just watch it there. Luckily, working at a fashion magazine has its perks and Kenny got us invited to this intimate chat.
So we rocked up and secured seats near the front, where I got a perfect view of Knight as he sauntered on stage. I'd heard a lot of stories about Knight, so I was keen to discover if any of them would be true. Sure there were moments when an arrogant streak unveiled itself during the interview, where once Knight demanded water glass mid-conversation and at another point remarked that the stage was badly lit. But despite these diva moments, Knight proved to be an excellent interviewee, one who spoke eloquently and articulated lengthy answers that were not only intelligent but thoroughly interesting.
From recalling his initial pathway into photography that began when he opted out of medical school, to divulging the background to his iconic Susie Smoking image, to discussing how SHOWstudio reached new heights with the McQueen/GaGa stunt, the interview was an engaging insight into the world of Nick Knight.
What I found most intriguing was Knight's thoughts on photography as a medium and how he considers it to be "dead", instead is focusing his attention on new, ever-evolving mediums of presenting fashion. As for the future of fashion- 3D scanning anyone? Absurd as it may sound- but in the future there may well be devices that allow us to download a jumper and then "print" it out. Knight claims technology is going there, if not already in place. We just have to embrace it. Needless to say, SHOWstudio will definitely be on the case. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the website and is testament to the reasoning behind Knight embarking on photography as a profession- "Ever since I started photography- I wanted to change it". Yes Mr. Knight, you certainly did.
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