Pedestrian TV

Behind The Scenes Of Natalie Imbruglia's Opera House Shoot  February 25, 2010

You'll probably recognize the cute as a button Mouseketeer (at right, obviously) as Australian singer-songwriter Natalie Imgruglia. You'll also probably recognize the Sydney Harbour bridge in the background and by way of spatial logic deduce that Ms. Imbruglia and her bearded man friend are atop the Sydney Opera House. Him however, you might not know. The name's Chris Searl though some call him Hollywood - Monster Children co-founder, photographer, all round good dude and beard enthusiast. We recently caught up with the hairier of the two to discuss the extravagant lengths Harper's BAZAAR went to for their forthcoming Wonderland shoot, Natalie Imbruglia slipping on the sails and shooting a future classic Australian fashion editorial.

Hey Hollywood, how were you approached for this gig?

Harper's commissioned 8 Australian Photographers, with 8 Australian Designers all shot around a Wonderland theme, hence the Minnie Mouse styling. So they approached me as one of the 8 guys to shoot, and I got paired up with the good people at Sass and Bide. From there I sat with the project creative director Edward Coutts-Davidson and we both threw ridiculous ideas back and forth at each other.

And how did the Opera House idea come about?

I was thinking what hadn't been done in Australian fashion before from a photography perspective. I'd remembered Georges Antoni had shot Sophie Ward on the Harbour Bridge, but no one had been on the Opera House sails before. I drive past that thing every morning and thought how good it would be to be able to get up the top, but never thought it could actually happen. The last people that went up there were those squealing Qantas kids for a commercial and prior to that Samantha Riley for the opening of the Olympic Ceremony, so it was insane to think they'd let some bearded monster like me with a camera up there.

And how do you actually get up there?

I always thought that you'd walk up the outside of the spine of the sails. You actually have to go on a half hour climb, in and out of small tunnels, up and down ladders, literally crawling on your hands and knees at times, and then the safety boss who has one of only two keys that open up the hatches lets you out the very top.

What was it like working with Natalie Imbruglia?

She was awesome. I met her the day before for a fitting with the Sass and Bide girls, and she was rad. Not at all scared of heights and wanted to do whatever it took to get some amazing pictures. She was more freaked out inside the tunnels than actually sitting up on the rails. But overall she was so excited to be up there. Not a bad spot to have your portrait taken though I guess.

Tell me about the shoot day.

In order to get up the sail for first light, we had a Hair and Makeup call time of 4:00am. So those guys had limited time to get Natalie dressed and ready to climb up for 5:30am. The day was so miserable. It was grey and raining and looked like it was going to get called off but we only had this one day to make it happen. So 7 of us went up the tunnels not knowing if we were going to be able to shoot or not. Once we were up there, the call was made and we were out there. Although you're only allowed 4 people out on the sails at any one time. So it was, Natalie Imbruglia, Mike Purvis a Photo Assist, a safety officer and myself out there. Firstly we shot on one sail to get the perspective of looking back at another sail, so that you could see exactly where we were and then we moved up to the highest point for another option. I think we were allowed two hours up there all together, so once we were done we signed the inside of the tunnel and were back down by around 9am.

Most memorable moments from the shoot?

There were so many moments that I'll look back on and remember. Natalie slipping up the top, phoning the wife from the very top sail, having only 45mins sleep before going up and generally just the excitement of it all, knowing we were the first to shoot a fashion image up there that will be looked back on for years to come was pretty incredible.

Have you seen any shots from the other photographers for this Harpers Issue?

I've seen them all. And they're all pretty amazing. It's great to see the different styles and ideas each photographer and the Bazaar creative team put in to this Wonderland project. I think I like Stephen Wards 'Ali Baba and the 40 thieves with the Bra Boys' although David Mandlebergs 'Teresa Palmer' shot is fucking great, but then Jordan Graham's photo he did with the 'Romance was Born' kids I wish I'd taken also. It's out on Monday, so they'd kick my arse if I didn't say go get one - after you buy Monster Children of course.

Cheers Hollywood.

No worries mate.

To see all the Wonderland inspired shoots pick up the forthcoming issue of Harper's BAZAAR which hits newsstands on March 1st
www.chrissearl.com
www.harpersbazaar.com.au