Sonny Vandevelde Talks Bruno, Backstage Opulence and NOT Taking Paris Hilton’s Picture


I’m not too sure what to make of Sonny Vandevelde when I first meet him for this interview. His salt and pepper beard, bucket hat and affable demeanor makes me think he once worked in a surf shop. The term “salty sea dog” seems particularly apt and I’m not too sure why. Surprisingly that assumption is only half true because (though he loves surfing and used to manage a surf shop) Vandevelde now documents some of the biggest fashion shows in the world.

Balenciaga, Comme Des Garcons and Alexander McQueen are the only labels to have eluded Vandevelde’s lens thus far. I say that because it’s far easier on my wrists, sanity and time to list the shows he hasn’t documented backstage. As I’ll learn over the course of our hour long conversation Vandevelde is warm (which may explain his easy rapport with the modelling set), an engaging raconteur and a photographer who’s as prolific as he is talented. Read on to find out about Jean Charles de Castelbajac’s reaction to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno stunt, tips for getting backstage and why you shouldn’t take Paris Hilton’s picture.

So I guess we should start by asking you how you got into photography? I was always taking photos! Even before school… I’d be mucking around with my Granddad’s little Kodak and then when I was at school my Dad’s friend gave me a Pentax camera complete with a little light meter and stuff…it was really ancient! And then at school I did a photography class for two years – which was just the basic stuff like darkroom, printing and enlarging – which was good fun, and I think I got into it that way.

Did you know you wanted to do it as a career or was it just a hobby at that stage? I don’t think I was really thinking about a career at that stage. I was just hanging out and taking photos of my mates riding their bikes off the bridge and into the river. Or just going for a bush walk with the camera and taking photos of flowers and waterfalls -whatever!

And when did you start to become more serious? It still isn’t serious mate (laughs) I guess when the processing bills started to build up from the labs and all the film I’d bought – realizing that working in nightclubs taking photos to earn money to pay for the processing bills wasn’t good enough, I had to do something about it. It got to the stage when I was trying to get stuff in magazines and get a bit of cash for it. I guess I got more serious when I didn’t have to work at night-time anymore, and I was making money and didn’t have to have a second job anymore to pay for the processing at the photo labs. And that would have been the early 90’s.

And how did your passion for images evolve to capturing fashion specifically? Well, I always loved doing, what I call a documentary lifestyle style because I lived on the beaches and people found out I was doing photography. I was managing a surf shop at the time for Mark Warren and from that I got to meet all the reps for Rip Curl and Quicksilver. And Quicksilver at the time had their head office I think in Mona vale or Newport, and I knew the woman who was in charge of marketing who would come to the beach where I was surfing so she got me to do some photos for their new ranges in the early 90’s and then I would shoot their new catalogues for all their snow gear.

At the time I was doing editorials for Dolly, Girlfriend and Cosmo…but there was a shift in the industry as Australia got more recognized overseas, and they liked the whole relaxed lifestyle, and at the time I was travelling overseas and they saw in my photography that lifestyle element. As soon as I went overseas I straight away got picked up by an agent who got me doing jobs for Tommy Hilfiger and also working for a lot of street mags and shooting hip hop scenes – it was a lot of fun!

But I was always coming back to Australia because I had a job with Harpers Bazaar, doing the Fashion Week shots for them, and I had an assistant who would sit on my podium and mind it for me. So while he’d be outside sitting on the podium, minding my spot, I’d be hanging out backstage because it was more fun. I would show [the photos] to the art director and then they started slowly incorporating that into the layout as well. After fashion week I took the photos into Marie Claire and they bought the lot. So that’s where it all started.

With that reportage style photography backstage, was it hard earlier on to gain that trust and respect? At the moment there’s a photographer named Dustin Pittman who used to do all this stuff as well in the 70’s, and I just met him in New York recently and he told me he would be backstage at Yves Saint Laurent and the problem now is that backstage the popularity has grown so much. So the problem now in the past 10 years is that everyone wants to get backstage. I remember 5 seasons ago at Lanvin there was literally 60-70 photographers there, realistically there should be about 10 – you should get your Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and then some niche magazines and then you get me (laughs). Because if there’s going to a pecking order, I’m still pretty much at the bottom of the ladder because I don’t work for a magazine that has huge advertising revenue.

In those early stages what did you do to get backstage? A lot of begging, a lot of pleading… I was really naïve because at the time I was working for Hint Mag in New York making their slide shows with Lee Carter, which was the first online magazine and nearly everything that’s come after that has modelled itself on the success of Hint Mag. But yeah, it was a lot of perseverance, and making a lot of phone calls. Everyday I would tell myself †don’t take it personality’ but I’d still get really offended if I wouldn’t be allowed back stage.

What’s the craftiest thing you’ve done to get backstage? The craftiest or shiftiest? (Laughs) I’ve done quite a lot of things that I shouldn’t have done but I did it because in my heart I knew that once the pictures would be published they would be happy that I was there. But you get [people like] Steve Wood and he’s in his 50’s and he’ll wear the typical black waiter pants and a white shirt, and pretend to be the caterer, walk around pouring drinks for the models but underneath his little white napkin he’s got a camera, so as soon as the show starts he’s like †sorry I’m not pouring drinks for you anymore, I’m taking pictures’.

Have you ever felt unwelcome? Yeah totally. Some designers to this day, like Veronique Branquinho is a classic case. I met her in Antwerp years ago while I was having lunch with an editor from a magazine, and we were creating this concept for a new magazine. We went ahead and produced this new magazine and it was just portrait shots of people in their homes. And as we were discussing the idea and the concept, Veronique Branquinho was sitting at the table next to us with her PA but I didn’t realize it was her but she was dressed very well and she had Rayban glasses on and she looked uber cool. So I said to the editor †oh look at her, she would be perfect yada yada’ and so after we finished our lunch I went over to her and said †sorry to interrupt your lunch but I just really like your look and this is Emmanuel, the editor of the magazine and I’m Sonny and we’re actually working on this new magazine where we just photograph people’ and she was like †No I don’t like getting my picture taken’ and ever since that moment when I’d arrive at her show I’d get the sense that she didn’t want me there.

I guess it’s that sense of control. Because a designer’s visions is so particular – everything that happens once the model crosses that threshold is planned so meticulously… It’s different for different designers. I’ll be at Jean Charles de Castelbajac and he loves it when I’m backstage and up until recently I thought Karl Lagerfeld did as well but it turns out he doesn’t like backstage photographers. And then you have other designers like Commes Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto – you will hardly ever see any backstage pictures because, like you said, for them they spent so much money on producing a show and making a collection that is being out there, and there the image is controlled because that’s what they want to project. Whereas backstage they have the hair being pulled out of the models, and they don’t want to show the chaos. But I never wanted to show the chaos; I liked showing the model sin the full outfit and having a bit of fun with it.

So who’s your favourite designer to shoot for? I’m going to be bias and say Bruno Pieters, because he’s become a dear friend of mine but even with him, for example, he hates having people backstage during the show. He hates it but he wants me there because at the same time he wants a documentation of what happens backstage as well. But I’ve always loved, without a doubt, the Galliano shows because Galliano would be up there with the amount of photos taken backstage. Vivienne Westwood is always fun but that’s really hectic sometimes too.

Who is your favourite model to shoot? Iekeliene (Stange) because she’s become a really good friend of mine. And of cause you have a lot of Russian models. But like I said to someone the other day its more about who is my least favourite model… because pretty much with all the models if they’re going to pose for me and smile for me then they’re a favourite… but it’s the ones that don’t and actually when I ask them they say no. Some of them would say †I don’t want my photo taken’ and I’m like †well what are you getting paid for?’ you’re about to walk out there and be photographed by the whole world. So the ones that are my least favourite are the ones that are uber uber uber beautiful, sublime to look at, they’re so pretty but at the same time they’re so ugly because they have this attitude.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen backstage? Bruno, well Sacha Baron Cohen, when he was in Milan and was causing a bit of havoc, that was funny and again at the at Jean Charles de Castelbajac he was there as well. And the security guys were onto him and they saw him coming a mile away and he still managed to get in backstage and the head PR went up to him and said †oh its Bruno he’s going to ruin your show’ and Jean Charles de Castelbajac just looked at him and said †uh let him do what he wants’ and he saw him (Bruno) running on stage and he was watching the monitor backstage and he just chuckled.

Has there been any shows you really wanted to see but couldn’t get into? I’ve never been able to do Balenciaga, Commes de Garcons and I’ve been backstage but I’ve never been able to shoot Alexander McQueen properly. So yeah there’s still a few more I want to do. I’m sure there’s one more, because I’ve done Vuiton, Chanel, Lagerfeld, Fendi, Galliano, Dior, Prada and Balmain… Miu Miu, that’s the other one I want to do.

That’s quite a list. So what is it about your approach that has afforded you so many backstage opportunities? With a lot of new photographers they’re treat it more like a paparazzi scene and take as many photos as possible and get in the way. They don’t give the designers that sense of respect and privacy which I’ve always tried to do. Madonna or Paris Hilton or someone might be standing backstage and I won’t pull out my camera to take a photo of them. Who knows? Maybe they went backstage to avoid their picture getting taken from all the photographers at the front of house. And I remember the first time I saw Paris Hilton, I wasn’t star truck, she was just standing next to me backstage with her agent and waiting til the very last minute to take their seats so they wouldn’t get swamped by the photographers. And she looked at me and smiled then noticed the camera and flash in my hand and all of a sudden I could read the horror in her face. Then it sort of turned into ‘why hasn’t he taken my photo, doesn’t he know who I am?’.

All images via Sonny Vandevelde

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