At long last, following on from her excellent 2007 collection of Elliott Smith portraits, here comes the hotly-anticipated publication of Autumn de Wilde’s Beck photos. It’s fair to say that, from roughly 2001 onwards, de Wilde’s photography has become synonymous with Beck’s music: iconic Sea Change sleeve art; The Information-era Dada-ist stills; magazine covers – it’s all amounted to some of her most perfect work as a photographer, and a collaboration in art that remains continually inventive.
As highlighted during conversations between musician and photographer at the front of the book, de Wilde has aimed to blur the lines between documentary and staged photography (“… sometimes I asked him to put on a tuxedo and pretend he went to sleep in Echo Park and woke up in Paris… Did I capture this, or did we create it?” she asks in her intro). As with Beck’s own work, juxtapositions abound and happy accidents inevitably form part of the whole. Whereas with Bowie, image was elevated to (and sometimes over) the importance of the music, in these shots, mostly spanning the 00s, there’s a clear sense of artistic fusion. The pair combine to create something that’s much more than just an artist’s image – it’s closer to a collection of happenings.
A smattering of earlier, Odelay tour shots, and a series of polite captures from Mutations studio sessions chart the first flowering of the collaboration – our only lament is that there doesn’t appear to be much extant material from the increasingly overlooked Midnite Vultures era. The beauty of Japan captured in 2008’s Modern Guilt press shots, does, however, go some way towards making up for it. A fold-out poster dust jacket just adds to the allure.
