Steven Klein’s Modern Muses

Since the ‘90s, Steven Klein has been illuminating the darker side of fashion and celebrity photography. He’s left Brad Pitt knocked out on the floor andtwisted Madonna around a stripper pole, and that is just in the pages of W. Along the way, he’s brought robots, horror-movie gore, and even old age into the fashion conversation, and ruffled not a few feathers along the way. Lately, he’s been branching out projects like a cosmetics line for Nars. I caught up with him on the cusp of 2016, before the debut of his new campaign for Equinox, starring the likes of Lydia Hearst and Jean-Claude’s daughter, Bianca Van Damme.

The Equinox campaign is very funny. I like that it subverts the idea that commitments should only be to the virtuous.

I’m glad you find it funny. I did one of the first Equinox campaigns, with Lisa Marie [Presley]. Then three or four months ago, they approached me with these specific stories they wanted to tell. It was a daring approach. It’s kind of rare to see briefs this exciting these days.

How did you go about casting it?

I approached it the same way I do everything; each picture is to me a narrative, a film. With Lydia Hearst, she was the right character for the scene, which is set in a ritzy restaurant. Lydia is an aristocrat.

Didn’t she get engaged recently [to Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick]? Funny that she happens to be nursing two babies in the picture.

She’s getting married next year, yes. But I didn’t know that until I saw her on set. I hadn’t seen her in a few years. But it kind of makes sense—she’ll probably have twins now! [laughs] Sometimes these things are prophetic in a way, you know?

And where did you find Bianca Van Damme?

photo:marieaustralia.com

Oh, she came via the casting agent. But how amazing, right? I’ve wanted to photograph her father forever.

Do you have a resolution, or commitment, for 2016?

No, I don’t believe in them. I think it’s more of a checklist you have to work on every day.

But you have a workout routine.

Yes, almost every day I work out at home with the same trainer for seven or eight years now. Since I ride and jump horses, I train specifically during the week to ride on the weekends.

Are you aware of the recent controversy over your Interview cover, which featured Kylie Jenner in a wheelchair?

I’ve heard, but I haven’t commented publicly.

Do you feel it was misunderstood?

People are always going to misunderstand things. It’s human nature. That I accept. It comes with the territory of doing anything of value. In regards to the pictures of Kylie, they are based on pictures I did with Tom Ford a long time ago in W [from the November 2005 issue], where we used very humanlike dolls. Kylie and I discussed treating her like a doll. What happened when I shot them for Wwith Tom was that the dolls were too heavy to carry, so I had to put them in a wheelchair to get them around.

I often revisit pictures I’ve done before. Unfortunately, people see things in a personal way, whereas I see things visually. To me, it was just playing with this idea of the pseudo-living doll, the different positions and setups I could do with her. When you do things for magazines, you need to call attention to it somehow so people pay attention to what you’re saying visually, but I never do things for shock value. But what’s interesting is that since then I’ve received a lot of pictures from girls who are in wheelchairs who’ve done their own renditions of the pictures, in a positive way. So maybe for a girl who is in a wheelchair, she might say, ‘Look how beautiful she looks. How great is it that a girl in a wheelchair looks sexy and cool.’ So I always look at the positive aspect of things. You can find negativity in anything. What I try to avoid at all costs are mundane, boring things.

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