Three generations of fashion photographers tell us what it's like on a shoot with Grace Coddington

W Magazine, September 2024 by Jamie Hawkesworth. Photography credit: Jamie Hawkesworth. Caption: Rianne Van Rompaey in Celine. Hair, Julien d Y’s; makeup, Francelle Daly; manicure, Megumi Yamamoto

Grace: Now, our third book with global icon Grace Coddington, celebrates her collaborations with thirteen iconic fashion photographers since her exit from Vogue in 2016. 

All of the greats are included: Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Craig McDean, Annie Leibovitz, Paolo Roversi, Mert & Marcus, Arthur Elgort, Jamie Hawkesworth, Inez & Vinoodh, Rafael Pavarotti, David Sims, Karim Sadli, and Steven Klein. 

More than 200 stunning high-fashion photographs, and 40 whimsical illustrations by Grace herself, document this extraordinary new chapter in her career. 

Phaidon.com has been asking the photographers whose work is featured in the book to tell us some of their personal stories of working with Grace. Our first story features the thoughts and photos of Arthur Elgort, Jamie Hawkesworth, and Paolo Roversi. When you've read the story head into the store and get a copy of Grace: Now.

ARTHUR ELGORT

British Vogue, September 2019 by Arthur Elgort. Photography credit: Arthur Elgort. Caption: Fran Summers in Marc Jacobs. Hair, Didier Malige; makeup, Francelle Daly

Arthur Elgort revolutionized fashion photography in the 1970s. Rejecting the stiff, mannequin-like poses common at the time, Elgort took models out of the studio and into the real world, encouraging natural movement, laughter, and improvisation. His ‘personal snapshot’ approach brought informality and spontaneity to fashion photography.
 
“When I think of Grace I think of her timelessness. You can't even tell her actual age. And she's just a very nice person. One of her skills on a shoot was that she could actually show the models what she wanted. I have pictures of Grace doing Naomi's poses or Cindy's. She knew what looked good and how to pose the models.

She always started an idea with the setting, and she would say, ‘I want to see everything.’ She wanted the whole scene not just close ups – the landscape. The Mad Max shoot we did was all Grace's idea. She made the emptiness of the Death Valley desert into something iconic.

“I remember that we both liked good wine so at the end of a shoot when the whole crew was having dinner, Grace and I would have the best bottle hidden under the table while everyone else was having the regular stuff!" 

JAMIE HAWKESWORTH

W Magazine, September 2024 by Jamie Hawkesworth. Photography credit: Jamie Hawkesworth. Caption: Rianne Van Rompaey in Marc Jacobs. Hair, Julien d Y’s; makeup, Francelle Daly; manicurist, Megumi Yamamoto

Renowned for his lo-fi documentary-style approach. Jamie Hawkesworth is known for his poetic portrayals of the architecture and people of Britain. Working strictly with film, natural light, and developing his own prints, Hawkesworth’s work is defined by warm tones, soft textures, and a compassionate viewpoint.

"The first time I worked with Grace was for Vogue. I remember I had to come to the Vogue office to meet her.  I was about 22 at the time, so I was incredibly nervous. When I walked into her office, she asked if I wanted a pizza. We sat and had a pizza in the in the Vogue office and chatted about photography. So straight away, it was really lovely. Sharing pizza was the perfect way into working with her. That's my very first memory of Grace. 

She talked about the color of my photographs, and it was interesting because that harked back to my photographs in my Preston Bus Station book. I spent a lot of time in the bus station, but when I got the contact sheets back they looked really cold, and never really looked that optimistic. 

And I was like, well, I loved being in this place. I really enjoyed taking these portraits so I started warming up my photographs to make them feel a little bit more optimistic and celebratory of a particular place. I remember Grace saying that she really liked those colors. So I think the beginning of what she saw in my work was this sort of optimism – that’s probably the best way to describe it. 

I remember telling her that a lot of that actually came from a mistake when I accidentally left the door of my dark room open. It brought this very warm, soft glow into the room and I thought oh, that's interesting. Over the years, I've honed opening and shutting my door in the finest of ways to let a subtle, warm glow come onto my photographs. It was really interesting that Grace recognised that small detail and it was a starting point between us. 

Before I met her, my thoughts were that she would be a formidable character who I’d be very scared of. But she has a genuine thirst to make really good photographs and a passion that comes through that’s really warm and inviting. 

I remember the first job I did with her, we ended up swimming in Jamaica, and we were in the sea together, and she was telling me stories about working with the likes of David Bailey, and I remember thinking at the time, I can't believe I'm swimming in Jamaica with Grace Coddington and talking about photography. That was a standout moment where I realised she really cares about making good photographs. As a younger photographer, that was genuinely so inspiring to listen to. That was my first story with her. 

Since then I've done two for American Vogue and I've done two for W magazine. I don't take that many photographs a lot of the time. Particularly with the fashion stuff, I really just try and wait. I really like to wait for a project that feels really special or exciting. So every time a project with Grace comes along, even though it's not that often, it's something I hold out for because it has so much more meaning. The times I've worked with Grace has been because I've really wanted to. 

With fashion it can get a little bit confusing for a photographer. You can find yourself in a situation where you have a model that you have no relationship with, wearing a really strange outfit in a particular place and it can sometimes be like, well, what am I trying to do? What am I trying to say here? 

And one thing that I've always held on to with my photography is to never really have too much of an idea and just go into a place and be really observant because someone will always do something interesting if you watch them. So instead of trying to tell someone to do something, I tend to watch them and then things begin to make sense. And I think with Grace, what she's really good at is allowing that space between her and the photographer. So I can be in a situation where a girl has big frizzy, red hair, wearing an odd Louis Vuitton look, but Grace creates enough space for me to enjoy that situation and not project too much onto it. 

Probably the hardest thing to do when you're doing anything creative is just to allow space. And that's what Grace does. When we're on a shoot, she lets me run around like a madman, taking pictures. 

I don't shoot digital. No one can see anything. We look through the camera. It's a very organic process. And she really enjoys that.  When I started working with her she could have easily demanded to see something immediately, to say that I needed to shoot digital . But she just let go of that and enjoyed the way that I like to work. I think the biggest thing with analogue photography and working in a way where you don't see anything straightaway, is that you make mistakes, which is the perfect thing to be doing. 

And I think that's what Grace enjoys and allows for, to let people make mistakes. And then when you look at the contact sheets, that's the best photograph. With Grace you can have a very odd idea, but it somehow always looks very chic. I know that seems basic, but there's a real skill in having a strange idea and it looking, not exactly believable, but inspiring, somehow.

With a lot of fashion ideas, there's always a danger that you could probably make someone look quite silly. There's a really delicate line. And what she does is walk that tightrope very well.

For example, the last shoot we did, we did, we shot Rianne for W magazine, running around these streets in New York. She had a huge, big red wig on, and she's wearing very surreal clothes, and we had her standing under this gigantic bridge where you could see a garage in the background, and it was all quite odd. 

That could have looked like the silliest photograph in the world, but actually there's a believability about it. And that's what Grace is very good at. And that's why I've enjoyed working with her because I think what I'm good at is bringing a grounding to something that's actually quite strange and a bit odd. I think that's what Grace has brought out in my work over the years. 

What Grace is good at is allowing me to have that sense of play with someone and not have a strict idea and say, right, we're going to do this. It’s more a case of right let's just walk down the street and see what happens, which sounds very simple, but sometimes it's quite hard to allow that amount of freedom. That's I what I've always tried to hold on to in my work."

 PAOLO ROVERSI

Dior Images: Paolo Roversi, 2018, by Paolo Roversi. Photography credit: Paolo Roversi. Caption: Tami Williams in Dior. Hair, Julien d’Ys; makeup, Lauren Parsons

Paolo Roversi is known for his highly dramatic, ethereal, and dreamlike portraits. Working with large-format Polaroid film, Roversi uses long exposures and minimal, painting-like illumination to coax out the interior world of his subjects. His imagery blurs the line between modern fashion and classical art.

"I have only good memories with Grace. Every moment was really good. She is so talented, passionate, creative, and fun too, so it was always a real gift to work with Grace. A particular shoot that sticks out in my mind is the one we did involving a series of hats. One was a chair, another was a strawberry cake, it was a lot of fun. 

She is unique. She was not only a fashion editor, but also a creative director. She really has a vision of what the photograph can be. And then she would push you in the right way to make a good photograph. She didn’t just want a good girl in a good outfit. She always wanted an interesting photograph. It was always a case of ‘feel’ between us. She trusted me and I trusted her."

And she has such a sense of elegance, and at the same time, is a little bit extravagant, and a little bit eccentric. And I love that. And she understands fashion so well, better than anyone. She educated me in fashion, and good taste, and in the right kind of elegance. 

When I met her, I was already working with my 8 by 10 Polaroids. I would take the image one by one, and she would look at them together. It was really teamwork. She liked my Polaroids very much, because she could see the pictures, one by one, and every picture was unique. She liked to work this way. 

I remember when I moved to London in the middle of  the 1980s, she came for dinner one night, and I had bought a beautiful Christmas pudding. At the end of the dinner, I put the Christmas pudding on the table, and she said, “It's not cooked, Paolo.” I didn't know I had to cook it. I thought it was like Italian Panettone, ready to eat!

I’ve worked in fashion for 50 years and she is the most faithful friend I have in the fashion world, for sure. Every time she comes to Paris, she phones me for a dinner or when I go to New York, we try to meet each other. She’s a really good friend. When we’re together we talk a little bit about cats of course! And about our memories. It’s always nice to see her."

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