TALKING PICTURES Nick Thompson

Nick Thompson is a photographer and filmmaker known for his masterful blend of colour, form, and classical influence with a contemporary aesthetic. His work, characterised by an acute sensitivity to structure and composition, captures subjects with an intimacy that feels both natural and sculptural. Exhibited in New York, London, Milan, and Berlin, his images have been acquired by the Museum of Avant-Garde in Geneva. In film, Thompson explores movement and narrative at the intersection of fashion and portraiture, earning recognition from the Berlin Fashion Film Festival and the British Fashion Council. His refined vision has led to collaborations with brands and publications including Dior, Prada, Vogue, Vanity Fair and Netflix.

The first image in the series that I would like to talk about is a rayograph portrait of Charlotte Carey, shot at my home studio in East London. 

I'd been speaking with Charlotte for some time about working on an essay of imagery that explores beauty and shape through form and light. I was totally obsessed with her look in that she has a very unique persona from her Indonesian and English heritage. 

The idea was simple: it was to create a photographic essay that explores this. I wanted to capture her nude and expose the beauty of the female torso. In this particular print I drew inspiration from one of the old great masters Man Ray who developed the rayographic printing technique. 

To me the symmetry almost reflects and reminds me of a butterfly effect. The prints themselves were printed in the darkroom by Peter Guest who specialises in black and white film printing. I ended up calling the series “Charlotte” which later went on to be exhibited and became part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Avant-garde in Zurich.

The collection was curated by the great Willem Klein.

Last year my partner and I launched HardCOPY, an independent publication that became a place for me to express ideas and personal projects through my photography and creative direction.

One of the covers for the magazine is with Serena Motola, who at the time was visiting London from Japan to walk in Susan Fang's show. My friend Phoebe was styling the show and asked me if I'd be interested in doing a shoot with Serena. We thought it was a no-brainer to do something for the magazine. We were about to launch it so it just made sense at the time. 

As a photographer, I've always been drawn to faces and eyes. I've always thought it to be a great privilege to study a person's features, composition and presence before capturing it in a photograph. 

A lot runs through my mind at this moment which lens will create the right distortion, how the light will interact with the subject and how I’ll interact with the person. 

While hair, makeup and styling are integral to fashion imagery, what I love about this particular shot is how Serena seems to exist beyond the time we know. 

For this particular image, I used a macro adapter on an 80mm prime lens, which softens the edges of the frame, drawing attention to her eyes. In this image, she just reminds me of some imperium being, something that is otherworldly.

So this is one of the outtakes that I did with Hayett Belarbi-McCarthy for Vogue Singapore. The photograph was taken in the northern part of Lanzarote, which has to be one of my favourite locations.

I've been there so many times over the years, it really is a captivating place, it's almost otherworldly and in some areas like some sort of strange lunar landscape dotted with ancient volcanoes and very sharp rock structures.

This particular shot was taken when we were going down to the water's edge after a very long day of shooting all over the island. We were about to hit that magical golden hour moment and as I was chatting to Hayett, I saw the sunlight behind it cast this really beautiful silhouette.

There were surfers coming out of the sea and the light was glimmering on the wet sand. What I adore about this image the most is there's some sort of infinity in the photograph that draws your eye into every moment.

I'm super fortunate to work with some incredible musicians and actors in my line of work. This image is of musician and friend Jorja Smith. She has such a wonderful presence about her. She's down-to-earth and very easy to work with. We seem to have a very natural connection and I love the fact she's always open to ideas and having a little bit of fun on set. 

We drew inspiration from Marilyn Monroe for this shoot. We knew we wanted to recreate this blonde hair that Marilyn was so famous for. That, along with Jorja's intense look that she can just switch on, creates this alluring and bewitching feeling that I really love about this image.

I love this portrait of Hanne Gabby for Numéro. Hanne is such an iconic model and I've wanted to work with her for such a long time so I remember how excited I was to finally get the chance. I had to travel to New York because that's where she's based. 

I remember it was a crisp and bright February morning in Brooklyn. The studio itself was in a very industrial area. We had access to this incredible zinc-lined rooftop space and the surrounding streets were lined with these huge industrial factories and car chop shops. 

I remember there were a lot of big trucks passing by on the street so the idea came to capture this moment with Hanne outside the studio. What I love most about Hanne is that she has this enchanting almost fairy-like presence – a little kooky and zany at the same time, which I think comes across in the whole story.

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