(no subject)

model: Jaime King; photographer: Davide Sorrenti?

OK, Jaime King does look pretty damn high in this picture, but I think that trying to portray Davide Sorrenti as a perpetrator of heroin chic is kind of a stretch.  He was a kid who got some photos published because his mother, brother and sister were already working in fashion. Sorrenti’s friend Matt Jones, a friend of Sorrenti’s said,

Yes, I guess he did slightly see the glamorous side. … He also saw the real side of it. And he glamorized it himself, which is the sad thing. It was a whole circle. He glamorized it, and got caught up in it a bit.’

(“A death tarnishes fashion’s heroin look” by Amy M. Spindler ,New York Times May 20, 1997)

(no subject)

model: Nadja Auermann; photographer: Paolo Roversi ; US Detour Magazine - March 1996

Auermann looks terrible (in a kind of great way) in these pictures.  A lot of her haggard appearance can be attributed to the technical aspects of the photograph, which seems to be a tintype (a medium with very distinctive tonality).  But her short hair, which looks like it was hacked off after some bleaching-gone-wrong, certainly contributes to her damaged look.

(no subject)

model: Karen Bendou; photographer: Mario Sorrenti; “Deep Thoughts” W January 1996

(from Fashion Photography of the Nineties, ed. Camilla Nickerson and Neville Wakefield 1996)

This style of photography sort of undermines the whole idea of “heroin chic” as a documentary style. I cannot imagine the spontaneous moment that this could be documenting — oh, yeah, we had over some strung-out models wearing velvet bathing suits and they lounged around on our red-satin-covered pedestal. But it is clearly anti-glamour — minimal makeup, a simple ponytail, amateurish lighting and improper color correction — and is very evocative.

(no subject)

model: Cindy Sherman; photographer: Cindy Sherman; Comme des Garcons 1994

I actually kind of hate this photo.  It is trotted out in every discussion of the convergence of art and fashion photography in the 90’s (Fashion Photography of the Nineties (1996) and Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990 (MoMA, 2004)) because it is from an ad campaign shot by an established artist.  It also seems to critique nineties fashion (i.e. heroin chic) with the fake tattoos and piercing, cigarette, wan complexion, circles under the eyes, glazed expression, imaginary-track-mark-covering gloves and allusions of self-destructiveness (e.g. the finger-gun pointed at her own head).  But to me it completely misses the stripped-down, no-makeup, warts-and-all style of dirty realism (a.k.a. heroin chic).  Sherman could have just taken the picture with harsh lighting and no makeup and her being 40 would have made her look terrible enough without all the mean-spirited theatrics.  Of course, I know Sherman is all about theatrics and props and prosthetics and makeup at this point, but I much prefer her Untitled Film Stills.

(no subject)

Nikki and Zoe 1995 by Terry Richardson

I was kind of obsessed with this picture in the 90’s, even though all my friends thought the girls looked hideous and tore-up. Somewhere, I have a jar of Kryolan black glitter — it makes it look like there are bugs crawling around your eyes.

(no subject)

model: James King; photographer: Nan Goldin; “Naked New York” Matsuda Autumn/Winter 1996

Jaime King:

I was surrounded by drug abuse. It was something that was always there. The editor, the photographer, everybody was smoking or shooting drugs, so it was natural for me. I just thought that was the way things worked. Did I shoot heroin? No, I sniffed it….I looked so skinny, with black circles under my eyes. It makes me sick, so sick, that’s what they wanted….My habit became a full-time job….It cost money but I had money. If you give a 15-year-old thousands of dollars, she’s going to buy lots of shoes, clothes – whatever she is into at the time. Magazines will talk **** about you but they’ll still book you.

(quoted in Supermodels and drugs: The truth by By James Sherwood in The Independent February 13, 2002)

The Independent article is rife with factual errors, and these quotes contradict what King has said elsewhere about the seriousness of her drug problem.  But I would also not be surprised if King had made conflicting statements and occasionally tried to play down her past.