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- [Nikki] Chris called me and asked me

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if I wanted to do a commission,

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and he told me the subject was Rosie Batty, so,

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I'd obviously knew about what happened

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to her, from the press. I shot in here because,

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I just thought "Well this would be quite a good

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room to shoot it in," and I think it should feel

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more relaxed than being in a studio environment.

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And I don't use any lighting, so the only thing I have is,

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I'll open the window, I had my camera,

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She just kinda sat here, I had my camera on a tripod,

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and I have one silver reflector. It's the way I shoot,

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absolutely all of the projects.

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So it just means there's not all that pressure,

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and it's always just the two of us,

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I don't have any assistants.

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I just wanted her to be herself,

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because she's strong and she's funny, you know,

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and she's so light-hearted, and I wanted

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that side of her to come through,

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but just in a really naturalistic way.

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And because we're just shooting in daylight,

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it was just beautiful and crisp and I just thought

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what could be really simple, and actually

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quite powerful looking as well.

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And Rosie had such a good energy when she sat down,

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and I think you can see that she kind of exudes it.

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All of my photography is based on film and cinema,

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because that's what I studied.

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I didn't study photography until I specialised in it

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later on, and I was going to be a cinematographer.

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So the way I approach a subject and the reason

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my images, I think, look like they do in terms of

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lighting, depth of field, facial expression,

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is because I come from that cinema background.

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With Rosie I was thinking of these Italian '50s,

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the quite strong women, because after being in a book,

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I thought this is one of the strongest people

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that I'm ever going to meet, cause she's incredible.

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And I just thought I want her to look like she's

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owning her own self, and her own power in a way.

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So I kind of already had an idea from that kind of.

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It seems really in depth for what's a very simple photograph

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but in my head I saw that kind of Charlotte Rampling,

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strong type of woman, and having to photograph her,

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I just wanted it to strip down and be really simple.

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And when she got here her eyes were incredible,

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because she always wears glasses.

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She has these really crystal blue eyes. They're so blue.

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And I just said to her, when she sat down,

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"Well how about we try without the glasses?"

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And I think she said "Well that's how people

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kind of recognise me and stuff,"

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and I said "Well let's just try without because your

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eyes are incredible," and we never did any shots

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with the glasses at all, because I just thought

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she just looked amazing.

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I don't retouch, and we did talk about that.

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And she understood that, and she was actually

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in favour of that, which I thought was great,

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because I think she's beautiful.

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You know, I think the thing is people have this idea

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of them selves and beauty and what it is

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and it's actually a very different thing,

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it's a much more tenuous thing than the idea of beauty

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and what's acceptable. And I think when people retouch

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an image I think you're creating this false idea of them.

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I think there's a beauty that comes out of,

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you know, life showing on your face.

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There's nothing more beautiful than someone just

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looking like they are, because we like to be able

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to relate to people in photographs.

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I would rather say relax, or just talk to you

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and let you be, because I think when we're just

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sitting, and just being who we are,

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that's when you're truer to yourself in some way.

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I'd always shot film when I used to type 55 polaroid,

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which is a 4x5 camera, which is quite big with

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the bellows, I would never dream of using digital,

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but now that I use digital I love it because I can travel,

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and I can see my images straight away.

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But I still never usually take more than five or six

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images of anyone because I find after the first two,

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they're starting to become conscious of the camera

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and I just don't see the point in shooting

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hundreds of images and then going through them

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and finding one that works. I just talk to them and wait,

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and then I'll see the image. Unless they sneeze,

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or blink or something, that's the image.

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I can see it anyways, so there's no point

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in shooting lots, I think, even with the digital.

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People say "Why didn't you shoot more?"

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But I usually know, you know when you've got it,

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and it's always usually the third image or something.