Face-to-Face: Talking to Venetia Scott About Her New Portrait Exhibition
When I called Venetia Scott, the photographer, stylist, and Contributing Fashion Director of British Vogue early morning last Friday, she was engrossed in putting the finishing touches to the display order of her exhibition “Fragile Face Lay Flat,” which opens at Matches Fashion’s hub at 5 Carlos Place in London on September 16 and runs through the 28th. The 30 or so images were taken during the last decade-plus—“over 12 years,” Scott said, adding with a laugh, “It could be 13, but I don’t like that number”—and they feature everyone from Kate Moss to Lindsey Wixson to Elle Fanning. What takes these pictures somewhere new is the way they have been cropped into, emphasizing only the faces, which brings a very different perspective, literally and emotionally.
What you’re left with is a striking and compelling collection of portraits which command attention by virtue of the direct and engaging gaze of the women looking back at you, underscoring Scott’s very particular way of working: There’s nothing anonymous about her subjects. And while these are pictures which are undeniably intimate, they don’t feel the least bit intrusive because of the empathy and emotion that she feels for those in front of her lens. In many respects these are quite simply a record of friendship, family, and love.
The exhibition is tied to Matches Fashion’s Curated By series, in which stylish figures give their take on the retailer’s collections. That has also meant Scott having a rare foray in front of the camera herself, in a rather striking set of pictures taken by her friend and collaborator Kim Sion, which you can see them for yourself on the Matches Fashion website. But it was her behind-the-lens activities we talked about that morning.
Venetia, talk to me about how “Fragile Face Lay Flat” came about.
I was asked if I wanted to do an exhibition, and when I started to look through [my] past work, I had the idea of zooming in on all the faces. It’s not a retrospective; it’s recontextualizing the photos I had already done, making a new image out of one which already existed. There was something about taking the editorial narrative out of the images to isolate the faces so that you’re left only with the eye contact. [At the exhibition] you will see 30, 31 people at eye level; it’s about connecting with someone in a very direct way, getting rid of the periphery of clothes and locations and props, all the things you bring into a fashion image.
What gave you the idea of cropping into the images?
It wasn’t a conscious thing. The girl is the central thing, and her expression, and what she says to me. Editing [photographs] on a computer . . . I always zoom in on the face [of a model]; I don’t care so much about the body position, but whether she is engaged, thinking, rather than a blank moment. The only thing was that the person couldn’t be too small in the image. If you zoom in, the face breaks up quite quickly.
I think the act of cropping the images only emphasizes how personal and intimate your images have always been; the character of who you’ve shot always comes through. How do you do that?
By keeping the team really tiny. I will go on other people’s shoots and the photographer has a poly-board around them with a sign that says, “Knock on the door”; they end up being separated from the crews, which can be as many as 30 people. When I shoot, there might be six of us. We take the location bus together. We have breakfast and dinner together. I will also try to stretch the shoot over two or three days. Once you have all driven around Gran Canaria together for three days, it is hard not to know each other better! [Laughs] I would love to do a Marina Abramovic, where everyone has to put their phones in a bowl before going on set, to leave whatever else is going on and focus on the shoot.