FEATURE:
Picture Perfect
PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith
Under the Ivy: The Etherial & Mysterious Kate Bush
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I have enough material for quite a few new…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jeanette Beckman
Kate Bush features, what with the publication of a new book about The Kick Inside, in addition to an interesting MOJO publication that has a collection of Kate Bush articles – including one about The Tour of Life, her ‘wilderness years’ and an unpublished interview from 1981. I will work those into features in the coming weeks. On the cover of MOJO is a gorgeous and eye-opening photograph by Clive Arrowsmith from 1981. There are two wonderful and almost art-like photos he took of Bush (both from the same year). The one on the magazine cover is Bush entwined in ivy. The expression on her face is a little sad. The composition is gorgeous and, when it comes to these standout and definitive photos of Bush, Arrowsmith’s must rank alongside the very best. He provides his memories of the shoot on his website:
“Kate Bush came the famous Holborn Studios in London for a shoot for Hearst Magazines who had asked me to take cover photograph for their new magazine Company. Kate was very definitely the woman of the moment at that time and her career was going from strength to strength all over the world.
She said very little when she arrived and looked a little sad. Not everyone enjoys promoting their music be doing shoots and I appreciate that. Most performers love it but some find it a necessary evil. I was immediately struck by her striking looks. I sent the stylist out to get strong theatrical gauze, in different colours, while Kate’s make up was being done,and I asked for some strands of Ivy (more on that in a moment).
Kate was very easy to work with and a calm silence pervaded her while we all worked, after hair and make, I got the stylist to help me by fiddling around with the shape of the blue gauze which I wanted to surround her face. I set up a blue light behind her, to surround her in blue and to enhance the blue gauze, which contrasted with the red of her lips and her hazel. She was not animated in front of the camera, hardly varying her facial expression while I was shooting, maybe it was me, or she genuinely found it difficult being in front of the camera. I felt as if she was just enduring the shoot, or that she must have something sad thing on her mind.
She spoke very little, and then in quite voice and just obey my request that she move this of that way. After the blue image my team and myself hung the Ivy from a boom over her head I directed the hairdresser from my camera viewfinder to refine the ivy strand arrangement”.
I asked the Magazine Editor why she was so silent and contemplative, she told me later she was upset by something that had happen that morning before she came to the studio. We never found out what it was and I don’t suppose it matters, but you do feel an etherial sadness in these pictures which to this day I find totally captivating. When you are shooting portraits you have to take people as you find them in that moment so I did try and reflect the wistful and ethereal feeling I got from her. I had been very excited to meet her and had been listening to her music the evening before. Kate is a totally genuine musical artist and these images also capture that very serious aspect of her talent. Although these could be seen as fashion or beauty images Kate’s presence adds such a depth of feeling that they have become an artwork in themselves. Even though I spent that time with her I still feel she is a complete enigma and that I know, no more or less than I did from listening to her music”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith
The photo above is another gorgeous and almost impossibly beautiful photo of Bush. I am going to explore other photographers like Guido Harari, John Carder Bush, Gered Mankowitz and Claude Vanheye who, between them, have captured these incredible shots that are so striking, memorable and original. I know a lot of artists change through the years and they look different in photos. Compare some early photos of Bush in 1977 and 1978 to Arrowsmith’s portrait of 1981. One can then look at some of the promotional photos for Hounds of Love in 1985 and there is this chameleon-like artist that could transform herself for every photoshoot and person she worked with – though she always retained a very personal look. What I mean is she was never disguising herself. It is testament to photographers like Clive Arrowsmith that he could create such a startling and phenomenal image! It makes me renew my call for a call for a new Kate Bush photobook. Maybe individual photographers would not have enough material to put out a huge volume - though I would love to see a combination of photos through her career from a variety of photographers. Having the ivy-clad Bush on the cover of a book would be phenomenal. It is one of my favourite photos of her. I just love the combination of her expression and the fact she looks so mystical, otherworldly and goddess-like. It ties into her song, Under the Ivy (which was released as the B-side to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), in 1985. I wonder whether she had the Clive Arrowsmith photo in mind when she wrote Under the Ivy, or whether it was a coincidence. Regardless, it is one of the finest photos of Kate Bush. Given the number of hugely impressive and stunning photos of her, that is high praise! Here’s to a great photographer who created…
IN THIS PHOTO: Clive Arrowsmith/PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith
THIS perfect shot.