FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush captured in 1985 during a Hounds of Love shoot with a smudge of lipstick and Kabuki makeup/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
‘A Smudge of Lipstick’, 1985 (Guido Harari)
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I thought I had…
put this feature to bed! Gone through all the best shots of Kate Bush. However, there is one more that I want to include. It is another from Guido Harari. I am doing a lot of features about Kate Bush in 1985. That was when Hounds of Love was released. On 16th September, the album turns forty. Ahead of that, I am going to dissect the album and talk more broadly about 1985. However, for this feature, I want to put a photo in the spotlight that I think is one of the most striking of Kate Bush. I can’t recall if I have talked about this before. I am going to get to an interview with Guido Harari, who discussed working with Kate Bush. I have used the photo at the top of this feature when posting on social media. I never really knew where it came from or the story behind it. Guido Harari started working with Kate Bush in 1982 and collaborated through to about 1993. It was a decade that saw Harari shoot Kate Bush during the release of Hounds of Love, The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). He was taking photos of her on the set of the 1993 short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve. That was directed, written by and starring Kate Bush. Most fans love Hounds of Love above all her albums, so it is fascinating to look at all the promotional images from around that time. I wanted to focus on this photo because it is especially stunning and eye-catching. A composition that casts Kate Bush in a new light. Many might think of her in 1985 and imagine big hair and have this distinct impression. However, for this particular photo, Guido Harari captured Kate Bush at a moment when she was experimenting and playing with styles and guises. All personal and meaningful, there was this colour scheme and emotional range uncovered for the camera. I will get to an interview with The Guardian from 2016. Harari talking about his book, The Kate Inside.
IN THIS PHOTO: Guido Harari
The book is one that I would love to own one day. For any fans who want to see some unreleased photos and get a more intimate look of Kate Bush, then this book is something you should get. That trust and fondness between Kate Bush and Guido Harari. A huge range of exceptional looks and compositions over the decade. The photos taken for Hounds of Love very different to the ones shot in 1993:
“The Kate Inside is a lavish tribute by Guido Harari to one of the world’s greatest music geniuses. Guido’s collaboration with Kate spans from 1982 to 1993 when he shot her official press photos for landmark albums like Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, including a completely never-before-seen reportage on the set of Kate’s film The Line, The Cross & The Curve. The Kate Inside is a limited edition of just 1500 copies worldwide. All are numbered and hand-signed by Guido and the Deluxe Edition is co-signed by Lindsay Kemp who also wrote a very sweet foreword. Accompanied by his own commentary, The Kate Inside is packed with more than 300 hundred photographs, including all of Guido’s classic images of Kate plus a wealth of vastly unseen photographs and other materials (test Polaroids, notes by Kate, various ephemera, etc.) taken from his personal archives that are showcased here for the first time. The Kate Inside is available as a Collector Edition and a Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition is limited to the first 350 copies in a slipcase and will include a unique 10 x11in signed fine art pigment print and a set of 8 replica polaroids (3 x 5in). These images have never been printed before and will only be available in this size as part of the Deluxe Edition. They will not be available for sale separately. The book measures 29 x 39 cm (11 x 15in) with 240 pages. Each copy is printed on heavyweight fine art paper under Guido’s personal supervision”.
I am going to wrap up soon. First, I shall come to that interview with The Guardian. Guido Harari discussing his book and his working relationship with Kate Bush. The final part of this extract is Harari talking about the subject of this feature. A brilliant photo from 1985 with such a wonderful pose. A gorgeous smear of lipstick. Bush’s face powdered to give it a whiter look. It is one of the best photos of Kate Bush in my view. One that I constantly think about:
“The photographer first met her in 1982 in Milan, when she was promoting her album The Dreaming. In the book he describes his first impressions: “Beautiful golden eyes, pouty lips, a big mane of hennaed hair.” Bush and her dancers had just come from a TV studio. “She was wearing what looked like decaying astronaut gear,” he recalls. “I had my equipment with me, so I asked them to improvise. What amazed me was how she switched. She seemed to be this shy girl then suddenly this wild beast came out. ”
In Milan, Harari showed her proofs for a new book he was making about Lindsay Kemp. The choreographer had trained the teenage Kate Bush in the mid-1970s, becoming a mentor to her, as he had been for David Bowie. “So my book was like a calling card – showing her that I understood where she was coming from artistically.”
Three years later, Bush called, asking if he would do the official shoot for her album Hounds of Love. “I went to meet her at her parents’ farmhouse in Kent. She had built a 48-track studio. One thing that really struck me was that there was no glass between the control room and where the musicians recorded. It was a place of silence and retreat from the rock’n’roll world. She had no desire to go to parties or be famous. Instead, she had her family around her. Her father was her manager and her brother had taken photos for her previous albums.”
For the Hounds of Love shoot, Bush told Harari that she would bring clothes that would be brown, blue and gold. “Nothing else! No other clues! So I got some backdrops I thought would go with those colours, and at 8am she turned up at the studio with her makeup woman and a few outfits and we went to work.”
Harari goes back to that Hounds of Love shoot, recalling Bush’s rapid transformations. First she appeared in an orange jacket with padded shoulders. “She looked like Joan Collins. And then she went off to the dressing room and came out wearing this fabulous purple scarf, like a woman from 1900. And then she disappeared again and I wondered where she was, so I went to the dressing room. And there she was sitting in a chair in this thick white Kabuki make up. She looked great, even with the powder still on her shoulders, but there was one detail missing – so I took her lipstick and smeared it across her lips”.
I really love how Guido Harari took this wonderful photo almost as a final thought! Kate Bush during this shoot was adopting diverse and compelling looks. This one very different and almost perfect. The addition of lipstick. The way Bush almost has her eyes closed and is sort of looking down. Rather than smiling, there is this seriousness and sense of dignity. Looking both strong and vulnerable, it is a sensational photo that uncovers new sides to Kate Bush. One of these artists who loved to collaborate with photographers and was always very giving and engaging, she brought the best out of everyone she worked with! I love this 1985 photo with the smudge/smear of lipstick. It is a classic that has this allure, sadness, steeliness and sense of a different culture. Bush wore kimonos early in her career and performed in Japan. I think she has always had a fascination with that country and the Asian continent. There is a touch of that in Guido Harari’s 1985 photo. Taken during a Hounds of Love shoot, it was such a busy and important time. Among all of that, this incredible photo was taken that creates mystery and wonder…
FORTY years later.