Nick Knight (photographer)


Nicholas David Gordon Knight is a British fashion photographer and founder and director of SHOWstudio.com. He is an honorary professor at University of the Arts London and was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by the same university. He has produced books of his work including retrospectives Nicknight and Nick Knight. In 2016, Knight's 1992 campaign photograph for fashion brand Jil Sander was sold by Phillips auction house at the record-breaking price of HKD 2,360,000.
WWW nickknight.comFB NickKnightSHOWstudioIG nick_knightTHR nick_knight

Life and career

Knight was born in Hammersmith, London. He studied photography at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design and published his first book of photographs, Skinhead, in 1982 when he was still a student at the school. He was then commissioned by i-D editor Terry Jones to create a series of portraits for the magazine's fifth-anniversary issue. His work caught the attention of art director Marc Ascoli, who commissioned Knight to shoot the 1986 catalog of Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto in collaboration with Peter Saville.
In 1992 Knight took a year-long break from fashion photography to work on an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London with the British architect David Chipperfield. The exhibition was called Plant Power and was on the theme of the relationship between humans and plants. The exhibition lasted for fifteen years.
In November 2000, Knight launched SHOWstudio.com.
He directed his first music video in 2001, for the song "Pagan Poetry" by Björk. In 2003, he created a film for Massive Attack's album 100th Window. In 2011 and 2013, he directed the videos for Lady Gaga's single "Born This Way" and Kanye West's "Bound 2" and "Black Skinhead." In 2016, he photographed American rapper/singer Travis Scott for his sophomore album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight.
In 2016, he was commissioned to shoot official portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles for the Queen's 90th birthday.
Also in 2016, Knight's hand-coated pigment photographic work, Tatjana Patitz for Jil Sander, 1992 sold for an artist-record $304,204 at Phillips Hong Kong. The work, originally photographed in 1992 and reprinted in 2016, featured supermodel Tatjana Patitz in a Jil Sander advertising campaign photographed by Knight. The celebrated photograph from Knight's commercial career in the fashion industry represents the collectability of his painterly works to buyers in the world of fine art.
In 2019, he collaborated with Kanye West, directing his short film Jesus Is King. Filmed in the summer of 2019, the film brings West's Sunday Service to life in the Roden Crater, artist James Turrell's installation in the Painted Desert. The film accompanied the release of Jesus Is King, West's ninth studio album, and was released in IMAX theaters on 25 October 2019.
In 2021, he reunited with Gaga for a collaboration with Champagne brand Dom Perignon on the campaign "The Queendom", in order to realize a series of photos as well as an advertisement, which was released on 6 April.
Following the announcement of Lady Gaga’s 2022 Summer Stadium World Tour, The Chromatica Ball, Knight was commissioned to shoot a series of interludes several weeks before it started, matching the twisted dark fantasy visuals Gaga had in mind for her shows.
Already Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Knight was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to fashion and photography.

Selected exhibitions

A few of Nick Knight's exhibitions are listed below:
2016
2015
2014Killer Heels, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn New York, United States
2012Icons of Tomorrow – Contemporary Fashion Photography, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
2011Vanity, Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria
2009Fashion Revolution, Somerset House, London
2006Archeology of Elegance, Deichtorhallen Museum, Hamburg, GermanyTalking to Myself, Yohji Yamamoto, La Masion Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
2001Century City, Tate Modern, London
2000 CUT, Musee De La Mode, ParisLa Beaute, Exhibition For EN2000, Avignon, FranceFacing The Future, Touring Exhibition to Celebrate 20 Years of The Face MagazineDas Fernglas, German Hygiene Museum, Dresden, GermanyNadja, Exhibition Celebrating Nadja Auermann, GermanyImperfect Beauty, Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonNurture and Desire, Hayward Gallery, London
1998 Look at me – Fashion Photography 1965 to Present, British Council Traveling ExhibitionPowerhause:uk, Department of Trade and IndustryThe Oriental Curiosity – 21st Century Chinoiserie, Traveling exhibition, Shoreditch Biennale, LondonThe first 25, Colette, ParisAddressing the Century: 100 Years of Art and Fashion, Hayward Gallery, LondonNo Sex Please we’re British, Dazed & Confused, and Shiseido Co Ltd, JapanYves Saint Laurent – 40 Years of Creation, New York, and TokyoSilver & Syrup, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1997 Contemporary Fashion Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonJAM, Barbican Gallery, LondonLittle Boxes, ; Traveling exhibition curated by Michael Mack
1996Art/Fashion, Biennale di Firenze, Italy
1994 A Positive View, Saatchi Gallery, London
1993 Vanities Exhibition, ParisPlant Power,, Natural History Museum, London
1992
  • Festival De La Photo De Mode Exhibition, Monaco
1991
  • Festival De La Photo De Mode Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain
1989
1986 20 For Today, National Portrait Gallery, London14-21 Youth Culture Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1982 Group Exhibition 1982, The Photographers' Gallery, London

Publications

Awards