Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Close to the village of Saint Loup

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mons, before the champagne district, northern france











































The golden land seems to go on forever. The season has been too dry. The bails are already cut and stacked. Fantastical straw architecture, often so ambitious, reminds of an evening long time ago in England. Guy stopped the car and ran into the field. He said he always dreamed of rolling the great drum bails. I was so afraid some one would come, I think in this time I was always afraid. But he was so happy and he was right. A Long time ago.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

Simon Procter celebrations for Bastille day with friends





Simon Procter with the Italian architects Francesca Bonesio and Federica Martinetto. 
Private boat Paris,Bastille day.
Photos by my freind Nicholas Guiraud
























In photograph

The English photographer Simon Procter and the Italian architects Federica Hurgon & Francesca Bonesio
Photography by Nicholas Guiraud

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bastille Day. Simon Procter s Official Portrait of the Garde Republicaine presented to the President of France

Today 14th July 2011, Bastille day.
Simon Procter s official portrait of the Garde Republicaine presented to the president of France
2 years of preparation, 150 infantry and cavalry from the Elite French Garde Republicaine photographed by the english artist Simon Procter.
The Artwork is destined to be the diplomatic gift to visiting royalty and heads of State.

"Pour la gloire de la France, le pays de mes enfants"
Simon Procter, Paris, July 2011

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Saturday, July 2, 2011

GQ with Stylist Jason Farrer from Archives

Untitled. NYC 2007

Untitled.  NYC  2007

Monday, June 27, 2011

Studio rouchon, Mugler shoot

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Saoirse Ronan by Simon Procter









Monday, June 20, 2011

Royal Ascot

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

Simon Procter, preview image from last weeks Stiletto magazine shoot


The wonderful new german model Ilva Heifmann waiting on set for styling.

Simon Procters' beauty & jewellery shoot for Stiletto Magazine to be published next month.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

Simon Procter behind the scenes at the Elite Garde Republicain shoot today

Friday 10th June 2011 Paris.
Simon Procters most ambitious Project to date.
A portrait of the "Garde Republicaine" (elite french Cavalry Regiment) 2 years of planning and involving 100s of cavalry and infantry in full ceremonial uniform. These are a few backstage photos actual images are literally government state secret for moment.  More news later.
Reportage photography Virgine Devaux.


Saturday, June 4, 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron dies aged 62

"The revolution will not be right back after a message about a white tornado, white lightning or white people,"

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Masha Voronina visit studio procter

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Simon Procter shooting in Versailles, Portrait of David Marvier, Simons first assistant

Test shot in the Palais of Versailles, by the photograher Simon Procter.
Portrait of David Marvier, (Simons first assistant)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

QVEST Magazine, 10 page story on the english Photographer SImon Procter

 AN ODE TO BEAUTY...
text YORCA SCHMIDT-JUNKER
Qvest Magazine, artists portfolio edition out now.

AN ODE TO BEAUTY...
text YORCA SCHMIDT-JUNKER
Qvest Magazine, artists portfolio edition out now.


AN ODE TO BEAUTY... no less: photographs by simon Procter, widely considered as the grand master of haute couture photography. His signature style, presenting fashion as a mise-en-scène, imbued with an iconic aura, is legendary. mr. Procter delighted us with beautiful images from his private archive of the chanel cruise collection 2009/2010, shot on the Venice lido. the photos published as an exclusive here demonstrate just why this englishman is one of the top names in his profession ...

Paris, a hot muggy July day: the thermometer is already indicating a tropical 24 degrees celsius at 9 in the morning. it’s been that way for days. and is gradually starting to get on my nerves. i rush from the »bastille« metro station through the 11th arrondissement, first along the boulevards, then through narrow streets and finally down tiny alleyways, doing my best to be on time. at long, long last i reach the street i’m heading for and spot the house number above the large heavy wooden door. i enter the code my host has given me into the electronic security device by the door. a quiet buzz, i push hard against the door and step carefully over the threshold – and find myself in another world. i forget the heat, my lack of sleep and the ever-present bustle of the metropolis, still so tangible just outside the doorway. looking at the magnificent, sweeping courtyard, surrounded by old trees covered in a thick mantle of creepers, not to mention the fragrant bunches of jasmine that seem be tumbling in cascades down the walls of the houses, i feel as if i’ve suddenly landed in the 19th century. Full of amazement, i stroll past small picturesque ateliers and workshops that have set up shop here, including an old tapestry workshop. as if that weren’t enough of a clichĂ©, the courtyard is also bathed in a light so lovely that not even william turner could have done better. everything here has a wonderful aura of the archaic about it, untouched by the high-tech world outside.
the atelier of the man i have arranged to meet for a photo shoot of the exquisite pieces from the Chanel haute couture, presented the day before, looks more like an artist’s studio than the work- place of one of the world’s most famous fashion photographers: a light-filled maisonette, the glass roof strikingly draped with ruffled fabric. the centrepiece is a generous set of sofas, with my host’s children and cats taking turns to leap across them – or simply tumbling around together all at once. the real heart of the space however is the open-plan kitchen, where assistant aimee is just baking croissants and pains au chocolat.
it is important to give such a detailed description of the surround- ings in which simon Procter works. that is the only way to understand why his images look the way they do, and to grasp the signature style of this self-taught photographer, who is one of karl lagerfeld and Vivien westwood’s favourite photographers when it comes to creating unique stagings of their work. John galliano is a fan too. but more about that later.
Simon Procter’s works are different from his colleagues’ photographs: whereas fashion photography – particular in the blog era – always seems to be trying to be as up-to-the-minute and as much in keeping with the zeitgeist as possible, often deploying aggressive sexualisation as a stylistic device, this english photographer’s work seems downright old school. not in the sense of being old- fashioned, traditional or from bygone times, but instead in terms of artistic virtues such as careful composition of the image, a coherent setting, virtuoso play with light and a generally ethereal air far removed from any kind of artificial posing or strident attitudes.
In keeping with this, Procter, who has made France his home, has an english Fine art Honors degree to his name, with a particular emphasis on painting and sculpture. He came to Paris in the late 1990s, in order to survive, he had to take on all kinds of jobs, and sometimes these seemed more like a kamikaze mission than artistic work. One of these jobs turned into his first photographic assignment: when he happened to meet James kaliardos, make-up artist and co-founder of new york’s Visionaire magazine, kaliardos suggested he should just take a few photos. For example, of the next Dior show. to top it all, not only did he send this beginner straight off to face the Galliano circus; the next surprise awaited the novice on the spot. the idea was that he would shoot the catwalk from above, balanced 35 metres up with only wobbly scaffolding beneath his feet. he rose to the challenge, producing brilliant work, which shaped his dazzling entrance into a new metier. »the day before my first photo shoot i didn’t even know how i was going to pay for the batteries for my flash. Five weeks later i was already shooting a global advertising campaign for Nike«, he recounts, summing up how it all began.
however, his artistic home has become the world of haute couture, for with his flamboyant, sensual and opulent style he fits into that milieu better than almost any other photographer. his work always exudes a sense of enchantment and rapture; the models seem to be literally floating in the space, elevated beyond the here and now. his admiration for the legendary painter and illustrator gustave dorĂ© can be seen shimmering through in these photos, whilst other works by Procter recall paintings by gainsborough and reynolds, as exemplified in the current Royal Ascot campaign showcasing creations by Vivien Westwood and milliner Stephen Jones. Procter transports us into another age, another world; he breaks out of the rapid pace and short-lived apparitions of fashion, which he describes in the following terms: »the speed is the most fascinating thing about fashion – and the most exhausting«.
with hindsight, a photo that Procter took of his compatriot John galliano backstage in 2006 seems downright visionary. it shows Dior’s former chief designer shortly before the show when the acade slips for a moment and his traits reveal the extent of the burden he was struggling with. this is not the radiant countenance of fashion: this is the face normally so carefully concealed, resigned, painful. For all its bluntness, it is still a lovely portrait, revealing a glimpse behind the mask of genius. a record that seems to presage his demise. an image that exposes the fact that fashion is no gentle muse but a tough business. this is no excuse for galliano’s unspeak- able outbursts, which signalled the end of his days at Dior. yet per- haps an explanation, already documented here. simon Procter is aghast at galliano’s inglorious demise: »this whole affair makes me really sad, something within it is deeply wrong«. nevertheless he still wishes galliano – to whom, indirectly, he also owes much of his career – all the best.
here we see another of the hallmarks of this master photographer’s work: his closeness to people, the unconditional benevolence and friendliness he displays towards them. when i met simon for the first time on that hot July day the first thing he did was give me a
glass of homemade iced tea. his greatest concern, alongside making sure that everything was perfect for the Chanel photo shoot, was that the whole team hadn’t had a proper lunch. that’s why his assistant, aimee, was put to work preparing a thai curry, whose spicy aroma promptly infiltrated the exquisite Chanel gowns, a state of affairs, which, it is rumoured, made monsieur lagerfeld’s right- hand man utterly furious. Simon Procter is a family man through and through – which means at times he ends up holding his vivacious 3 year old son in his left arm whilst shooting fashion with his right, with his six-year-old daughter scurrying around the set in the background. the quality of his pictures doesn’t suffer at all from this: on the contrary, all the animation of the moment seems to seep into his shots, giving them their uniquely authentic yet magical air. Procter, from a working-class background in the north of england, a region shaped by the unglamorous influences of mining and heavy industry, never let himself be taken in by the dazzling surface beauty of the fashion world. despite his dealings with supermodels and gowns with a price tag approximately the same as for a luxury car, this father of two children feels deeply linked to his roots – growing humble at times as he comments: »on a personal level, the class struggle in britain is a darkness that touches in an oblique way. i think there is a whole generation in the north of my country that has been neglected and utterly forgotten. my brothers do not have the same life as me«.
in all probability this insight also has a decisive influence on his work. and turns fashion photos into visual poetry. that makes him a worthy inheritor not just of the tradition of gainsborough or turner, but also of John milton.


Saturday, April 23, 2011

Parc de Feline, Northern France





































The roar is incredible, everyone rushes to the barriers. Beneath the woodland canopy two Siberian tigers begin to fight. They are huge and terrifying in action, rearing up eight feet tall. Their White, grey bodies like forest ghosts pale yellow stripes almost invisible. They circle and then again come together, a few children are crying everyone is tense. It is truly fearful to watch. I realize my daughter is tugging at me, she says, "this is boring" she wants to go see the baby goats again.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

View from studio Procter
















































The wisteria has exploded, the scent is heavy, dense flowers buzz electric with hungry insects. Entranced strangers are drawn into the courtyard to bear witness. If you touch the engorged blossoms they instantly disintegrate and drop like pink snow. Im using way too many adjectives.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Saoirse Ronan, fashion shoot for Bullett Magazine, Staten Island, NYC











































We drive far out of the city.
Strangest house, eighteen Peacocks patrol the gardens.
The shoot is fast, the team is perfect our young star is sixteen years old, one day she will be a legend.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Chateau de chantilly, Oslo , Percheron




































Another great day working with our friends at the Chateau de Chantilly, museum of the living horse.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Interview with Simon Procter for "Invisible Paris"

Tuesday, 22 March 2011


Simon Procter: a spy in the house of fashion

Paris-based Simon Procter is one of the world’s most renowned fashion photographers, but his glamourous lifestyle today is a long way from his working-class roots in a small industrial village in the North of England. I talked to him about his unusual journey, and about how he is trying to transcend the fashion genre to create truly great works of art.

A long time ago I wrote a poem called Lockwing, which was about the swift. It's a bird that can lock its wing and sleep while still flying, and I wondered what it would mean to be a creature that had no nationality and no need for contact with the earth”.
Dividing his time between New York and Paris, as well as on location shoots across the globe, Simon Procter is seemingly in the perfect position to answer this question.

As yet though, it is an enigma that he has not solved. The name Lockwing has also been given to his studio space in Paris, as well as
to a mysterious ongoing project. "We are not sure what the Lockwing Project is yet" announces the website he has set up in this name, and when I ask him directly he is no more forthcoming; “I’m afraid you will have to wait and see where that one goes” he explains, “it’s a bit confidential at the moment”.

Will it be his life-defining project? Procter's artistic progression has been a curious mixture of
intense self-belief with splashes of serendipity, but when speaking to him it is clear that he is constantly questioning his work and attempting to move back the boundaries of his discipline(s).
His creations - often based around monumental and dramatic compositions - have been described as “a unique synthesis of classical painting and fashion photography”, but this is a label he refutes. He is happy to keep the ‘unique’ tag, pointing out that he is always “trying to do something that no one else is doing”, but seems annoyed to have his work thought of as some kind of fusion. “My work is not a pastiche or a reference to the great classical art works. I am truly trying to produce things of that level” he explains.
His ambitions, and the creations that have stemmed from this, have also provoked a minor storm in the worlds of art and fashion. In 2008, British newspaper The Independent
discussed Procter’s monumental ‘Galliano Royal’ creation for Harper’s Bazaar and its later starring role at the prestigious Art Basel Miami art fair, and askedit may be fashion, but is it art?’ Describing his work as ultra-flamboyant theatricality the article also asked ‘does a Galliano shoot really belong in a gallery?

For
Procter, though, the more relevant question was the one posed at the end of the article; "it may be art, but is it photography?". As Procter has himself admitted, "most of the time I don't consider myself to be a photographer". He is working on projects that involve both painting and photography, and is a thoroughly modern artist, tacking along the digital line that today blurs traditionally distinct artistic boundaries.
The reason behind his approach may come from his background. Procter is classically trained. He studied fine arts, and for many years concentrated purely on painting and sculpture, considering photography to be a discipline for the rich. His drift towards photography was part accident and part design, but he believes that his wider training has given him a certain edge. “There was a whole genre of painting that was not really relevant to me when I studied Fine Art. But once I started taking photos something - a whole tombe of composition and pictorial structure that I was trained to understand and analyse - clicked. This was a massive advantage” he explains.

His vision may have developed early, but just how did he land in Paris and the fashion world? Following his art school studies, Procter explains that he did many things, and lived most of his adult life without very much money, which although "a bit exhausting and scary at times" was also a way of life that he "always believed to be for the sake of something".
After drifting to Paris, his break came following a chance meeting with “a wonderful guy called James Kaliardos (one of the founders of V magazine) who really supported me without asking for anything in return”. At the same time he stumbled into the fashion world, which he describes as "a very strange land, much stranger than people realise", but also one which changed his life.

The world of fashion gave him freedoms that he had never had before. "I had rather naive but very strong ideas about what an image should be, and by sheer chance I was put in a situation where this had great value. One day I was worrying about having enough money to buy batteries for my 10 dollar flash on my first V magazine shoot and five weeks later I was shooting the Nike global advertising campaign. The speed is the most fascinating and exhausting thing about fashion".

Simon Procter may be one of the key movers in this industry today, but he remains something of a non-conformist. When I ask about his influences, he mentions 19th century French artist Gustave Doré, whose work he describes as "very immediate, very graphic", but he also lists a far more surprising influence. "On a personal level the class stuggle in britain is a darkness that touches in an oblique way" he explains. "I think there is a whole generation in the north of my country that has been neglected and utterly forgotten. My brothers do not have the same life as me".
When I ask if this is not a little incongruous in the elitist world of the fashion industry, Procter hesitates. "I think its mainly an outlook on the world, seeing both the bottom and the top. The consumption of luxury brands may be elitist but the creative forces and ideas can come from anywhere" he explains.

Some of his recent photoshoots back up this theory. A Chanel project was snapped in the workshops of the artisans who live and work alongside Procter, but above all, it is his series
'Death of a Painter' for Christian Dior Haute Couture that gives an insight into this world-view. The shoot is the recreation of the 'life, art and death' of Procter's aged painter-neighbour, a lady called Rolande who had befriended his young daughter. It is a difficult subject matter, and one that could be deemed in bad taste in the wrong hands, but with the elegance and craft of Procter's photography it stands as a haunting eulogy.
Simon Procter's vision and motivations are undoubtedly complex, as are his often hyperreal airbrushed photographic compositions. Perhaps as an antidote to this existence, he also runs a blog called ‘Under Lutetia’ which focusses mostly on Paris and features much more intimate and personal photography shot entirely on his iPhone. When I ask him about it, he seems almost surprised. "I didn't think anybody else looked at it" he says. However, it is perhaps here where the real Simon Procter can be found. "It's more a kind of diary for myself" he explains. "Its not very glamorous. I think it's about what it is to be human". It's a subject that Simon Procter seems to know a lot about.





Simon Procter’s Paris"I love Paris, I truly love Paris. I have grown up in Paris, but always with - and as - a bunch of outsiders, who dont know much about St Germain and the Latin Quarter. I lived in Belleville a long time - a kind of china town in the east of the city - and it’s a wonderful place. There's duck drying on the balconies, and you can see live eels for sale in the street. Everywhere is energy and industry, but no one has a free ride here.

My recommendations for visitors are always the same. Everyone once in their life should go to the menagerie in Jardin des Plantes and see the snow leopard. After that a bowl of soupe satay sans boulettes in the vietnamese Tin Tin restaurant just next to the Belleville crossroads
"
.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Simon Procter shoots Royal Ascot Advertising campaign.

Simon Procter shoots the new Royal Ascot advertising campaign with the designer Vivienne Westwood and the milliner Stephen Jones.