The crew all met at my rented house-share in Greenwich about 7 am each morning, and I made them breakfast before we all climbed aboard the Winnebago to go to the location near the river. On the first morning, while the models were having their hair and makeup done and the stylist Vicky was getting them into their first outfits, I grabbed the impossibly handsome Pascal, who was already in his designer suit, and whisked him up a small hill beside the Thames barrier, my assistant Jenny lugging a giant double-bass case behind her. I didn’t have the patience to wait for his hair to be done so I started shooting. The most famous shot from this five-day shoot was the fourth frame of the first roll of film that I shot that day. As soon as I took the photo, even though it was on film and I couldn’t just look at the back of my camera, I knew I had taken the photo that would change my life, and it did. The campaign was so successful that the agency went on to book me for almost every campaign for the next four years until the recession hit their business. Other agencies also started calling me, and I finally got a great agent who was a Godsend. The Jack Daniels photo was even bought by the owner of River Island who used it for posters in his Concept Man stores, even though none of the clothes were his. Six months later I bought my first apartment in Ladbroke Grove just off the Portobello Road where I had photographed Spike the year before. The agency opened their own store—called DAVIES after the owner David Davies—in Covent Garden selling clothes and furniture. I shot the campaign and brochure for that too, and that campaign got me my first trip to NYC where Anna Wintour’s HG (House and Garden) booked me to do a shoot on the roof of the PUCK building.
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1. Christie Denham for M8 Magazine 2. Greta Varga for Random Magazine Paris 3. Janine Giddings for The Independent
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