She keeps us enthralled, like Bowie did: the magic of Kate Moss, by her photographers

What’s it like to photograph the supermodel? As she hits 50, five photographers relive their shoots – from capturing her in a transparent dress to putting her in bed with Lucian Freud

Fashion icon, artist’s muse, queen of rock’n’roll … for more than 30 years, Kate Moss has been at the cutting edge. In her first landmark photoshoot with the late Corinne Day, the then teenage model embodied the blissed-out spirit and optimism of the early 90s. Since then, she’s been painted by Lucian Freud, sculpted by Marc Quinn, sung about by her ex Pete Doherty, and even rapped about by Playboi Carti and Kanye West. So what makes the Croydon beauty such an object of fascination? As she turns 50, five photographers who have taken classic images of the model share their thoughts.

‘I wanted a pure version of Kate with no distractions’

Nick Knight

This was shot on a 10-by-8 camera which gave a soft, delicate quality to skin tones. The image was almost size for size, so it’s a pretty realistic portrait of Kate. She comes in many guises, but for this Vogue cover, I wanted to get a pure version of Kate with very little distraction, which is why it’s just her face. We were in love with, fascinated by, and in awe of Kate and her talents.

What makes Kate different from a lot of other models is her understanding of imagery. If you said to her, “OK, I want you to look a bit Tina Modotti mixed with Edie Sedgwick,” she’d get it. An actor has a script to interpret, but a fashion model interprets the narrative in a piece of clothing.

Models know that a fraction of an inch makes all the difference to a picture. Kate would model with the same enthusiasm from the beginning of the day to the end. I remember a shoot for Visionaire, where I had her on a swing, going backwards and forwards – for seven hours! It was an act of physical endurance, but models can do it.

With Kate, you know you’ll always come out with a great image. She’ll put everything into it – and knows her face incredibly well. She’ll stand with me and the stylist, looking at pictures we’ve taken, and say: “Oh no, I can do better than that. If you move the light to the left, I’ll lift my head a bit and make my neck look longer.” Like any good performer, she knows how her persona is best delivered.

Kate represents the cultural zeitgeist in the same way Marilyn Monroe did. I started working with her in the mid-90s and we’re still doing shoots. That’s a long time to be relevant and inspirational. David Bowie’s metamorphosis from one character to another kept generations enthralled and Kate’s similar. She represents something that we think is exciting and important, but you can’t describe why that person is that way. They just are.

‘Lucian Freud had been injured by a zebra’

David Dawson

Kate had come round to cheer up Lucian Freud who was unwell in bed. He had painted her portrait a year or so before. A young film-maker had wanted to do a short film of Lucian with a zebra, inspired by a 1950s photograph of the artist with a stuffed zebra head. Lucian, who was very, very good with horses, gave the zebra a tap – but it suddenly yanked its head back and pulled him over. He was a bit sore for a few days although nothing was broken. So that was why he was in bed and he had to tell Kate all about this.

I’d let Kate into the house, brought her upstairs to Lucian, and said: “Oh Kate, I just want to have a photo of the two of you together.” Kate said: “Yeah, of course!” Then she spontaneously jumped into bed and had a cuddle with him. That’s the brilliance of Kate – she knows how to make a great photograph. But it also showed the tender friendship between the two of them.

‘She said she didn’t know her dress was transparent’

Richard Young

Last year, Kate and I were chatting about this shot and she said: “You could have told me my dress was transparent!” I thought: “Kate, you knew it was transparent. That’s why you were wearing it!”

The picture was taken in 1993, at one of the very first British fashion awards. Kate was about 19. What’s so lovely about it is that she’s got a cigarette in her hand. Smoke gives pictures a much better atmosphere. With everything now so pristine and clean, things can be quite boring.

I’ve been photographing Kate for years. The last time was a month ago, arriving at the British fashion awards in her black Valentino dress. She looked fantastic. She puts her outfits together so well, keeping it very simple. I don’t think that will ever change. In her later years, she’ll look just as remarkable, elegant and lovely.

‘She’s so British it’s probably tea in the cup, not coffee’

Kate Garner

I had shot Kate Moss before, for i-D magazine when she was about 14, a little fashion shoot about sweaters. By 1990, we knew each other from around town, being on the scene. The idea was to do a more sophisticated shoot, on the theme of the morning after the night before. We did a series of pictures where she was getting ready to go out, then coming home dishevelled, and then going out for a coffee the next morning.

The magazine I shot the series for didn’t publish them in the end because they said Kate wasn’t going to make it as a model. Then they came to me a couple of years later, wanting the pictures. They published one of her holding a teddy bear in her underwear, which is now kind of controversial.

The reason why Kate made it so big is that she’s deeply intelligent on a body level. She can figure out what you’re trying to do and make it bigger. It’s not just about being good-looking. This coffee picture, which is probably tea because she’s so British, is such a simple image – but she just connects with the camera. Of all the pictures I’ve taken of celebrities, the ones of Kate just keep selling.

The fashion world can be very: “Shall I be friends with this person – or is it more advantageous if I don’t speak to them?” Kate never indulged in that sort of behaviour, which makes her very likable. If you help Kate at all, she will be faithful to you.

As far as her looks go, you can think: “Oh, she’s just pretty.” But if you look deeper, you’ll see that the eyes are a little farther apart than normal, the mouth fuller, the cheekbones bigger – and suddenly that prettiness takes on another dimension. You could not take a bad picture of her.

‘I was always slightly nervous in her presence’

Johnnie Shand Kydd

This was taken outside the Ivy in London, where there had been some sort of dinner related to Madonna starring in Evita. I’ve always felt uncomfortable taking photographs of models when they’re socialising in their spare time because they actually make their living out of being photographed. So I was always slightly nervous in Kate’s presence. She’s one of those people who are able to exude the message: “Don’t point that camera at me.”

Damien Hirst, who I knew quite well, would have said: “Johnnie, take a pic and I’ll grab Kate.” It shows you how photographs can result from collaborations rather than the photographer just going snap. It’s very Damien – taking control and having the generosity to set up such a great shot for me.

Vogue once commissioned the YBAs to do portraits of Kate, so she was friendly with Tracey Emin and Sam Taylor-Wood too. I like Kate enormously: she’s always very sweet. Damien looks gobby? It was a gobby time! I took mountains of photographs of the YBAs, and one of the things I’d love was to spend the day with him. For Damien, the word no doesn’t exist, everything is achievable if you want it. I think the picture of him and Kate together has that same energy, that sense of fun and brilliance.

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