Here is Kate Moss, with pink hair splayed across a pillow, her face scrubbed of makeup, her smile sweet and wonky. Sarah Lucas’s Pauline Bunny artwork with its confrontational hosiery on a charity shop chair. Sean Ellis’s collaborative knights-in-grubby-armour shoot with Alexander McQueen.
Here are happy ravers, in a club, or saluting the sun as it stretches and yawns over a litter-strewn hill. They were taken a long time ago. They are curated by Edward Enninful for the Tate’s exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion (Enninful worked at i-D in the 90s) and almost everyone involved is shiny and fresh.
The models, whether professional or not, are mostly in their 20s, and the photographers are early in their careers. It gives the photos a youthful fizz, a verve. But the energy also comes from an understanding between photographer and subject.
In many of the pictures you can feel the shared mischief, a “yes we’re serious about our ideas” but also a “look, we’re getting away with it!” delight. At the time these photos were taken I was writing for magazines such as Select, the Face and Smash Hits. I know some of the subjects in the pictures, as well as some of the photographers.
No surprise: I was out a lot, and so were a lot of people in what we now call the creative industries. We were excited: we had just moved to London, or Manchester, had recently left art college or school or university, managed to wangle our ways into occasional, seemingly glamorous jobs that hadn’t yet blossomed into careers. As every generation must, we were elbowing our way in from the edges to the mainstream, finding space for ourselves and people like us.
Some of the people in these pictures eventually became very rich, and so moved into different circles. But at the time, everyone was on a level. Skint, hard-working and up for a good night out.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
