Renowned for her striking looks, Vivienne Westwood’s erstwhile muse and Nick Cave’s wife has never been far from a camera lens. It is therefore unsurprising that she has chosen the distinctive work of Czechoslovakian photographer Miroslav Tichy for
Discovered at the tender age of 14 on a flight to New York by prolific photographer Steven Meisel, Susie Bick began her successful modeling career at 16. Photographed by legendary imagemakers David Bailey, Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon and Nick Knight (see the iconic image Susie Smoking); Bick has also been shot for numerous advertising campaigns that include Christian Dior, Versace, Nina Ricci and Yves Saint Laurent; featured in seven feature films and also starred on the cover artwork of two Roxy Music covers. Renowned for her striking looks, Vivienne Westwood’s erstwhile muse and Nick Cave’s wife has never been far from a camera lens. It is therefore unsurprising that she has chosen the distinctive work of Czechoslovakian photographer Miroslav Tichy for her Favourite Thing. Here, we speak to Bick about Tichy and her photographic experience shooting self-portraits for AnOther’s JEAN D.I.Y Project in collaboration with Rag & Bone.
What do you find so compelling about Miroslav Tichy’s work?
I find Tichy’s work compelling for so many reasons. First I fell in love with his photographs before knowing anything about him. He was a genius and hand made his camera out of bits of paper and cardboard. He looked like a tramp as well and photographed people on the street, on the TV and in parks as I think in his country it was forbidden to take photographs for artistic purposes at that time. His photographs are voyeuristic and beautiful. I have always loved looking at photographs.
Every photo.
I loved how he never attended any of his own exhibitions or sold a photograph, he would only exchange them with other artists. He was self-sufficient building his own camera out of bits of cardboard. I loved the way he looked a bit like a tramp. He photographed from the TV and in secret because of the law in his country.
And did you enjoy the Rag & Bone photographic/self portrait experience?
For the Rag & Bone shoot
I liked that I was on my own, usually there are so many people when I'm being photographed and every time I have an inner struggle with self confidence and I loved deleting ones I didn't like. As usually I haven't dared ask a photographer to do that if I didn't like a photograph.
What other photographers work do you admire and why?
I can't name a favourite as they all are. Dominique Isserman
, David Bailey, Nick Knight, Helmet Newton, Guy Bourdin,
Hiro…
To view Susie Bick’s AnOther Loves stream see here.
To view AnOther’s D.I.Y JEAN Project in collaboration with Rag & Bone: Susie Bick see here.
Text by Lucia Davies
