Backstage / Haute couture Christian Lacroix, Paris 2008 Photograph - Limited Edition of 100

For 5 years starting in 2003, twice a year for the Marie Claire magazine I photographed the backstage of the haute couture shows. I tame these - to me - totally foreign places. I discover the world of fashion and the irrational rules of backstage. I earn my place behind the curtains several hours before the start of the show; keeping my place there is a challenge: being accepted behind the scene is never a given and often requires kafkaesque negotiations. The show starts, all the photographers are concentrated in the same place. I am in a trance. I can’t stop photographing, almost compulsively. Everyone runs, yells. People are shoving. When it all stops, I’m soaked, exhausted, I’ve taken over 350 pictures. The setting is the same each year, only the clothes change. So I experiment with new approaches, I imagine new pictures. I use a flash, black and white, colour, movement, close-ups, with always the imperative of showing the clothes. I don’t photograph slices of life, I avoid anecdote. I speak little and don’t connect. For me the models are unreal.