Siamo nel 1991, a Woodstock. Ci tengo a dire che ho sempre avuto un'idea distorta di lei. La Bjork che ho apprezzato è quella del video di Oh So Quiet, sgargiante, ballerina, acrobata...e qui proprio sono rimasto di sasso...mai avevo visto di lei, una foto così bella e personale, semplice e al tempo stesso sofisticata, come d'altronde è la sua carriera. Di tutti suoi scatti, questo è la mia preferito e della mia stessa opinione è la stessa autrice, Laura Levine :
I'm often asked if I have a favorite photo and I can say without hesitation that it's this one right here. All of the elements combined to make it one of my favorite moments as a photographer, and it happened purely by chance. I met Bjork the night before when she invited herself along and joined some friends and me for a late night pool game up in Woodstock. At the time she was upstate recording with the Sugarcubes. I was already a fan, and had always wanted to photograph her, and when I asked her if I could she said sure. Just like that. We'd been talking all night, she trusted me, and I guess that was all she needed to go on.The next day I picked her up and brought her to my friend Ben's house, who helped out as my assistant for the shoot. I knew he had a lovely forest glade behind his house and I thought the setting fit in nicely with her freespiritedness. As happens often in shoots I've done (don't ask me why), she gradually began to to shed her clothes. I picked out a couple of oversized leaves (a la Eve in the Garden of Eden) and she stepped onto a large boulder. At that moment it started to drizzle, she stood on tippy-toe and opened her mouth to catch a raindrop on her tongue. Click.
Having spent a long time talking with her the night before I felt this image really captured her essence - a woodland sprite, a free spirit, playful, earthy, and open . (Some other reasons why this is a favorite? No makeup artists, no stylists, no trendy fashions, no managers, no publicists, no record label politics, no artificial lighting, no gimmicks, no self-conciousness. Just natural light, some foliage, and Bjork.).
Eva nel giardino dell'Eden...una foto "geniale" come direbbe qualche professore...e senza torto alcuno!ma Laura Levine ha scattato altre bellissime foto a gente come R.E.M., Clash, Madonna, Richard Hell, Michael Hutchence, Lou Reed...poche però secondo me hanno la freschezza e la genuinità della piccola islandese dai suoni di ghiaccio...anche se...forse un Michael Stipe d'annata, assorto nei suoi pensieri in un fumoso bar di Washington DC, tra una sigaretta e un Martini mezzo vuoto lascia trasparire qualcosa di se...e del semplice click di una mano di Laura...rockstar tra le rockstar...
Etichette: Bjork, fotografia, Laura Levine
It is improbable.