Leslie Weiner, Yohji Yamamoto, London (Flag)

Signed, titled, dated and editioned out of 10 on artist’s signature label on verso.

“The project with model Leslie Winer wearing the Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto for Italian Vogue was one of my favorite fashion shoots. I was experimenting at the time with different, unusual themes for magazines, striving for graphically strong, interesting photographs.

We arranged to shoot at the sculpture school at the Royal College of Art in London, because the students were off for summer break and it had a massive skylight for great indoor lighting. I had graduated from the college in 1969, so I knew it well, and I loved the idea that we were doing the shoot at the exact location where so many great artists had worked, including the sculptor Henry Moore.

While looking around one of the studios at the college, I noticed hanging on a wall a large piece of black velvet that had been left behind by one of the students. I thought it would be a great complement to the Yamamoto clothes. First I placed the velvet behind the model, but I didn’t love the way it looked. Then I put it in front of her to cover her face, and I thought, ‘What a mysterious, surreal image!’ And that’s how the photo was born.” – Albert Watson.”