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depth of field
January 15, 2013

Norman Jean Roy Thinks Digital Ruined Fashion Photography

By James Lim

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Photo: Courtesy of Norman Jean Roy

Photographer Norman Jean Roy shoots for two of the world’s most high-profile clients, Vogue and Vanity Fair. And whether on set with Hilary Swank and Joan Smalls or producing more personal, socially conscious work with the Somaly Mam Foundation, Jean Roy captures engaging, highly memorable shots of his subjects.

Though primarily identified as a fashion photographer, Jean Roy describes his work as portraiture. “A great portrait needs to first grab you and then let you sit in there and continue to draw you in. [Whereas] with a lot of fashion photography, it really hits you hard and then it slowly fades away,” he told the Cut. “To me, that’s the fundamental difference between a great photograph and a great picture.” When we stopped by Jean Roy’s West Village studio to speak about sixteen of his most iconic works, he added, “It’s a real wrestling match always [having to] work and make a living in one of, quite possibly, the most self-absorbed industries in the world.” In the slideshow ahead, Jean Roy talks about making portraits of George W. Bush, Cate Blanchett, Florence Welch, and others.

There seems to be a connection between portrait photography and psychology because photographers need to be perceptive with their subject’s body language, mood, and eye contact.
I’m a photographer as a means to record the events of my life. The psychology involved in understanding human emotions and character is deeply attractive to me. It changes every single time from one minute to the next and you can never harness it.

What role does the camera play in the relationship between the photographer and the subject?
The camera is a very neutral prism, if you will. The camera has no opinion, no emotion, it just renders — and so the emotional components of a photograph live on each side of the camera. When you have a discussion with someone, there’s nothing to neutralize the situation; the camera does that. It’s really how, for example, most photojournalists can go into war or famine or atrocities and witness it through the eye of a lens and stay very natural in that moment.

Then, isn’t the camera a photographer’s shield?
Oh, absolutely. There’s no question. I am not interested — at all — in revealing myself to my subjects. That’s not the purpose of what I’m doing. This is also why I absolutely enjoy the process of being photographed by another photographer.

When you shoot for fashion versus more of your traditional portraiture, do you ever become annoyed having to work with a team of stylists, beauty, and production people?
Working with stylists and beauty team has its function. I’m not necessarily frustrated with that part, as much as I am with the current state of fashion photography. I think, with the advent of digital photography, the dictatorship aspect of photography became democratized and over time became a group effort, which I think is bullshit. I’m sorry, but photography is a dictatorship; it’s not a democracy. At the end of the day, I don’t sit here and tell the hairstylist to move the hair a little bit this way when they’re working. I’m sure as fuck not going to have someone tell me what to do with photography. With that said, as a photographer it’s your responsibility to fulfill the needs of your client. You don’t want to be a dick about it; there are plenty of people who do that, which, I think, is equally bullshit.

What has been the result of a more democratized world of photography?
If you look back even fifteen years ago, fashion photography was fun, lively, and full of humanity. I’m hoping to God the younger generation coming out now is going to be able to recapture that. It’s where creativity lives. It’s certainly not in the digital process, and it’s certainly not in the team effort. The team effort works when all of the people come together in assembling an image.

And you usually shoot on film.
When you shoot film, you don’t have the luxury of seeing every single image coming out. And because of that, you stay very focused. Everything [becomes] hyperreal, so when you get it, you get it another time, and another time after that just to make sure you got it. As a result, you have a much better version of, I think, the moment. That’s much more real, honest, and broken, too.

Broken?
Part of a perfect image is that it is imperfect. With digital photography, it’s very easy to perfect the image. You kill the image when you perfect it. You basically suck the life out of it. An image, to me, lives when you can look at it and it’s just slightly off. Like, when you put a primary red and primary green together, you have that vibrancy between the two. A great photograph, not a great picture, needs to have that vibration. It would be very easy to take any one of my photographs and I can tell you where I could have fixed this and fixed that.

There are many fashion photographers working today who perfect their subjects to an inhuman degree.
Oh, yeah. Any photographer can do that. And the ones that do that are the ones who destroy their image. There are lots of fashion photographers who destroy their image. Again, I’m not dissing it; to me, that is what I think is fundamentally wrong with fashion photography. It really is directly because of digital capture.

So you never shoot digital?
If and when I have to shoot digitally, I always shoot to card and never show anyone. I usually give myself a day or two before I look at the session. It’s the same thing you would do with film, you shoot your film, it goes to the lab the next morning and you get it back that afternoon. That space in time between [taking the photograph] and looking at it after is a really important thing. It’s kind of like counting to ten when someone makes you really mad. If I said something awful to you and you just counted to ten, your reaction would be different than just [snaps fingers]. We’re in such a hurry to make sure we “got it” that in the process I genuinely think the results today are infinitely inferior than where they were ten years ago.

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1 / 16 Photos
Hilary Swank, Vanity Fair, March 2005 "She had just finished Million Dollar Baby and I wanted to do something simple on her that was iconic... Hilary Swank, Vanity Fair, March 2005 "She had just finished Million Dollar Baby and I wanted to do something simple on her that was iconic. I had worked with her a bunch of times before. I wanted to convey the strength of [her] body. I thought the best way to do it would be to not do the prototypical image; I wanted a bathing suit, but I didn't want to make it sexy for the sake of sexy. One thing I try to do with women is I don't objectify them; I don't try and project any sort of sexuality into them. I usually try and let whatever strength, intelligence, and vulnerability come into their own and bring it to the forefront. " Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Johnny Depp, Esquire, May 2004 "What a sexy beast, right? I don't like guys, but I think he's pretty handsome. Guys like him, you just give... Johnny Depp, Esquire, May 2004 "What a sexy beast, right? I don't like guys, but I think he's pretty handsome. Guys like him, you just give it a loose concept, you go in there that day and everything just works. The first Polaroid you pull looks great. It was shot an hour before sundown in the Hollywood hills of Los Angeles. Everything about this photograph, I love it. The fact that it's just a little too far in the center is what I like about it. It feels broken. There's too many bottles and it's just not perfected." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Somaly Mam, Glamour, December 2006 "Somaly Mam is a woman who was a former sex slave. She managed to escape the brothels in Cambodia, after... Somaly Mam, Glamour, December 2006 "Somaly Mam is a woman who was a former sex slave. She managed to escape the brothels in Cambodia, after seeing one of her best friends being executed in front of her. I was in Cambodia for 24 hours to photograph her because she was being honored for Glamour magazine's Women of the Year award. I've always had a personal need to do something more with my life than just taking pictures to make a living, but I could never quite find what I could sink my teeth [into]. To this day, Somaly is one of my best friends. I'm going to see her this weekend." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Florence Welch, Vogue, September 2012 "This portrait was fun because it was very conceptual. I knew what I wanted to do with the photograph... Florence Welch, Vogue, September 2012 "This portrait was fun because it was very conceptual. I knew what I wanted to do with the photograph. She's just so fabulous that I wanted to do something really epic, so we thought, 'Let's just have her rearing on the horse, going into a Joan of Arc moment.' It was shot in a studio against the backdrop. Again, this is, in my opinion, when fashion and portraiture come together and becomes that Vogue picture." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
George Bush, Newsweek, January 2001 "This was an interesting moment for me because he was just elected president and we shot this in Texas ... George Bush, Newsweek, January 2001 "This was an interesting moment for me because he was just elected president and we shot this in Texas in the governor's mansion. This was shot on a 8x10 camera, and I appreciated how powerful of a weapon, if you will, a camera can be. In the sense that, here I had one of the most powerful men in the western hemisphere and in my half hour with him, I could do anything I wanted with him. Without meaning to do anything or to have any opinion on him or try and make him look like anything, he ended up looking exactly like I thought he was going to look. You can interpret that however you want." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Lance Armstrong, GQ, 2001 "[This was taken] after his third Tour de France. It's very easy to take Lance and [shoot] him on a bike. With hi... Lance Armstrong, GQ, 2001 "[This was taken] after his third Tour de France. It's very easy to take Lance and [shoot] him on a bike. With him, I wanted to do a very static study on him, as a person. I asked him to take his shirt off and when I saw his tan, that was it. That's really all you need to say; here's this rail-thin, like cigarette-paper-thin skin of a ravaged body after a tour, which is insane, with a perfect biker's tan. We shot that in one of the side-closet rooms of a hotel in Austin. He just showed up in his pickup truck that had a bike in the bed and he was really nice." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Henry Goldberg, Saving Henry "This image was part of a series I did for The New York Times Magazine on fanconi anemia. It was at the t... Henry Goldberg, Saving Henry "This image was part of a series I did for The New York Times Magazine on fanconi anemia. It was at the time when George Bush was in office and he ended up vetoing the bill [against stem-cell research]. Had the bill passed or had there been more funding for research, Henry would probably still be here. Unfortunately, he ended up passing away three years after this photograph was taken. This was particularly meaningful to me because I photographed this on Father's Day. I have four children; that's when you kind of connect what you do professionally with what you do personally. " Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Steve Martin, New York Times Magazine, August 8, 1999 "This won the Art Directors Club's Gold prize that year. It's when I really started t... Steve Martin, New York Times Magazine, August 8, 1999 "This won the Art Directors Club's Gold prize that year. It's when I really started to play around with decomposing light. I came up with this lighting called 'the ugly stick,' and it's just random lights put around the studio to create a base [source of light] and you end up with all these shadows that cancel each other out. If you really look at it, there's all these weird shadows that are not duplicated. I'm a big fan of Steve Martin and he was such a nice guy. I really gave him very little direction so that I could get a very quiet portrait of him. I think the most frustrating part of these subjects is to try and convey some of that depth they have beyond what people know them to be." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Cate Blanchett, Harper’s Bazaar UK, March 2006 "Cate is sensational. She emanates beauty, femininity, and strength. [She] cares deeply abou... Cate Blanchett, Harper’s Bazaar UK, March 2006 "Cate is sensational. She emanates beauty, femininity, and strength. [She] cares deeply about her craft and the craft of others. She went well above and beyond the call of what was expected from her. Working with animals is always challenging because there's no real directing them. You become hyperaware, hyperfocused on every aspect because you can't just redo it. It's just a moment, and these moments are fleeting. That part of it is really thrilling to work with, and frustrating at the same time. A lot of people have said it's kind of like an [Richard] Avedon ripoff; well, just because it's there's an elephant, a girl, and a dress doesn't make it Avedon." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
George Clooney & Gemma Ward, Vanity Fair, November 2006 "This was one of my first sessions with Michael Roberts [fashion director at Va... George Clooney & Gemma Ward, Vanity Fair, November 2006 "This was one of my first sessions with Michael Roberts [fashion director at Vanity Fair]. George is like Cary Grant; like the classic Hollywood [man] with such presence. You point a camera and it almost doesn't really matter how you light, what you do, you're going to get something that's unique and great. We wanted to do this really old-Hollywood feel to it and Gemma is also really lovely. She looks like Princess Diana or Grace Kelly." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Bill Clinton, Newsweek, May 2006 "I [knew] a lot of people who worked with him in the White House, so you hear all about his magnetism and ... Bill Clinton, Newsweek, May 2006 "I [knew] a lot of people who worked with him in the White House, so you hear all about his magnetism and presence. This was shot in a basement of a church in Harlem. I was such a fan of Bill Clinton and he was the one president that had eluded me. When I had photographed him, it was a personal satisfaction for me — and I got to experience that presence that people have spoken about. He has this aura when he walks into a room, you really feel it. There are few people I have a photographed in my career that have that presence, and certainly he has that. I shot ten frames and that was it." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Usher Raymond, Vogue: Fashion Rocks Magazine, fall 2007 "It's funny how the funny guys don't want to be funny on the shoots and the dancer... Usher Raymond, Vogue: Fashion Rocks Magazine, fall 2007 "It's funny how the funny guys don't want to be funny on the shoots and the dancers don't want to dance on a shoot. And so, I thought, 'Oh, absolutely I'm going to get you dancing, for sure.' We built this beautiful platform on top of this building with the New Yorker in the background. I wanted him to have his own personal tap-dancing studio outdoors. He wouldn't dance, he was doing this whole posing stuff. Again, with all those guys, you have to keep at it until you break them. " Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Traffik Portrait, Traffik, 2008 "[After shooting Somaly Mam,] I wanted to explore a way to create a project that would have a lasting effec... Traffik Portrait, Traffik, 2008 "[After shooting Somaly Mam,] I wanted to explore a way to create a project that would have a lasting effect on [Somaly's] organization to bring awareness and funding. I decided the best way to get the message across and have a lasting impact would be to publish a book. But do it using my platform as a Vogue and Vanity Fair photographer and bring that reverence to these girls that are victims of rape and are the product of rape, and give them the dignity and respect the way you would do a subject when you shoot for a magazine. I didn't want [this image and its series] to have a journalistic approach to the images because, to me, as beautiful and poetic as photojournalism is, it's a fleeting moment in time, whereas a portrait is something that stays with you." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Ana Ivanovic, Vogue August 2009 "What you don't know is that we had 25-mile-per-hour winds, 40 degrees, raining sideways, our lights were c... Ana Ivanovic, Vogue August 2009 "What you don't know is that we had 25-mile-per-hour winds, 40 degrees, raining sideways, our lights were collapsing, and we didn't have heaters on the beaches of Normandy. The backstory is that all this stuff was going on, it was chaotic, yet you have this beautifully quiet moment that is very serene. If you could see the behind-the-scenes, it would be hilarious — and that's when you know, as a photographer, no matter what's happening around you, you find that tunnel [with the subject]. Ana's great. I just photographed her again for a Rolex campaign. She's so beautiful and sexy. I love her. " Photo: Norman Jean Roy
New Generation, Vogue, January 2010 "This is one of my favorite stories I did with Tonne Goodman. Tonne Goodman, Phyllis Posnick are easily... New Generation, Vogue, January 2010 "This is one of my favorite stories I did with Tonne Goodman. Tonne Goodman, Phyllis Posnick are easily two of my favorite editors at Vogue I've worked with. This is kind of like the melding of fashion and portraiture in a very cool way. This was [taken] at the time when Sam Worthington did Avatar, so we were able to get the actual Avatar and motorcycle from the movie. I love these kind of complex photographs. I really wanted Raquel to have this fashion anamorphic presence. And the portrait portion of the image to me was Sam. I focused my energy on what I wanted him to do inside of that. Throughout the whole portfolio, [Raquel] became a character within the portrait." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
Vanity Fair, Hollywood issue, March 2011 "This photograph was particularly significant for me because it's the first Hollywood franchise cov... Vanity Fair, Hollywood issue, March 2011 "This photograph was particularly significant for me because it's the first Hollywood franchise cover [for Vanity Fair] not shot by Annie [Leibowitz]. Even if I never shoot another one again, it was a personal accomplishment for me that they entrusted me to do this and I was first photographer after Annie to shoot it. We shot this in two parts because the ones on the cover were in New York, while the others were in Los Angeles. We had to line-cut [within the photograph] and we had to do a lot of modifications post-production. I wanted to convey that classic Hollywood heyday gone by. This cover was ridiculously crazy, but sophisticated, sexy, and young." Photo: Norman Jean Roy
1 / 16

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