Most of my work has been in moving pictures, but in 1998, I spent a few months working around Europe as Executive Producer on a stills campaign for Prada, shot by Glen Luchford and art directed by David James. It was a fascinating experience in many ways. Amber Valletta was one of our models and this shot of her, strongly reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's film, The Shining, was taken when we were working at an abandoned palazzo just outside Frascati, near Rome.
It was spring when we arrived, so the blossom was on the trees. We drank blood orange juice at breakfast and ate fresh, raw fava beans and fennel at lunch. As we'd flown in from a snow-covered Prague where we'd spent a fortnight shooting in a freezing fun fair, it felt rather strange building a vast maze and covering it in fake snow. But as it was built for us by the Art Department from Cinecitta - the people who'd done all the sets for directors like Fellini, Pasolini and Visconti - it was fascinating to work with them and hear all their stories.
David James is a very private kind of guy; he's done a lot of great work over the years, but he hasn't courted publicity so I was surprised to see a feature on him in the newly redesigned Creative Review that linked to his new site, Out of Print, where you can see this image.
As David says in his notes the photographer, Glen Luchford, was and is absolutely obsessed by film, and I remember that one of my more enjoyable tasks in various European cities was tracking down DVDs of obscure horror films by the cult Italian director Dario Argento that he would pore over again and again until late in the night.
But one important credit David doesn't give on his site is to Barry Ackroyd, who worked with Glen as a kind of stills DoP throughout the campaign and contributed a lot to the look that won it a Silver at D&AD in 1999.
So I was both surprised and really pleased to see Barry's name on the credits as DoP on Kathryn Bigelow's wonderful film, The Hurt Locker.
Class will out....
