As part of my Knitted Camouflage project I spent an amazing day recently shooting with DJ Fat Boy Slim, AKA Norman Cook.
Norman has a bit of a thing about smileys, from the tattoo on his shoulder to the medallion around his neck, and this extends to the roof of his house, which conveniently has an 8m wide smiley face painted on the roof. I felt this had to be immortalised in knitwear by Nina Dodd.
I balanced on a ridiculously large step ladder, taking advantage of the biggest tripod I own, the Gitzo Giant, while Norman lay back and squinted into the sun in his hand-knitted robe, smoking a cigar.
We also flew a drone around the house while we shot, getting some great behind the scenes footage, and making a little film to go with one of Fat Boy Slim’s iconic tracks, Right Here, Right Now (used with permission, of course):
German TV station Deutsche Welle flew over to film the shoot, so you can see what we got up to here:
Photographing celebrities can be a challenging job but shooting with Fat Boy Slim was an amazing experience - he was just as excited about the project as the rest of the crew and was very relaxed about the whole shoot.
To clear up a frequently asked question, yes, the clothes are really knitted, not created in Photoshop or CGI. Check out the behind the scenes footage if you don’t believe me!
Here's Norman posing with me and Nina Dodd, knitter extraordinaire.
Pour mon projet Camouflage Tricoté j’ai eu la chance de photographier le DJ Fat Boy Slim chez lui à Brighton sur la côte sud de l’Angleterre. Après une matinée grise et nuageuse (normal quoi, c’est quand même une station balnéaire en Angleterre !) le soleil a fini par apparaitre et du haut de mon escabeau j’ai pu mettre en scène FBS, de son vrai nom Norman Cook.
Nous avons filmé au drone pendant la prise de vue, ce qui nous a permis de faire un petit film accompagné d’un des morceaux cultes de Fat Boy Slim, Right Here Right Now.
Pour répondre à une question que revient régulièrement : le stylisme est fait en tricot, à la main, pas sur Photoshop ni en 3D ! Regardez les photos et films de making off, vous verrez bien ;-)
Une chaîne de télévision allemande, Deutsche Welle, a profité de la prise de vue pour produire un reportage sur mon travail :