Anna Bauer: Eye of the Storm

Fashion’s most influential, and often unseen, figures are captured on Polaroid film in German photographer Anna Bauer’s elegant book of intimate portraits, Backstage. Lauded as “a benchmark for the present, and a reference point for the future,” in a foreword by venerated fashion journalist Tim Blanks, the 240-image tome was designed by Interview’s iconic creative director Fabien Baron. Featuring snaps of the elusive and camera-shy as they pause between shows, the monograph includes such luminaries as Phoebe Philo and Raf Simons alongside publishing playboy Olivier Zahm and grand dame Carine Roitfeld. Originating from the New York-based Bauer’s documentation of post-show debris for London Fashion Week’s Daily Rubbish, the project has evolved with the support of veteran photographer Sean Cunningham, who helped secure portraits with fashion royals such as Karl Lagerfeld. Bauer’s vintage-style Japanese Toyo 4x5 large format camera––which takes minutes to create a picture––was key to facilitating her subjects’ remarkable serenity. “I was looking for a moment of concentration,” she says. “Those two minutes it takes the camera to capture the image forces them to slow down. They have to be still, to concentrate.” 

Backstage will be released by Angelika Publishers in October, 2011.