One of the few photographers that comfortably and effectively straddle both fine art and editorial fashion work, Collier Schorr has been shooting beautiful images of youth for nearly 25 years. Approaching both aspects of her output in the same way there is little to differentiate between the two, her images examining gender, sexuality and ambiguity with a tenderness rarely seen. Her recent portfolio for Dazed & Confused is no different and the haunting results leave you with a feeling of authenticity that only she manages to capture. We caught up with her to talk about the shoot, her process of working and what she has planned for the future.

Dazed Digital: How did you go about the casting process for the portfolio?
Collier Schorr: We gathered a bunch of new faces and then I went through who would fit into the multi-character portfolio. With boys it is a lot easier but women seem to have expectations. I think the women we chose though, really understood that we were after a kind of performance not only in terms of gender but also of portraiture.

DD: What were you looking for in the models?
Collier Schorr: Sexy always, but also a certain melancholic feeling that translated the delicate transition from youth to adulthood. I find the idea of representation so complicated, both in the idea the model's character and also in the fact that the photographer is revealed in the fantasy chosen to explore.

DD: Androgyny plays a big part in this shoot, and your work in general. Where does that come from?
Collier Schorr: Youth's greatest achievement is that it’s still soft and undefined. Gender is something you hint at with clothes and hair, so fashion photography is the ideal place to play with it.

DD: Is sexuality something you consider in your work?
Collier Schorr: My favorite photographers growing up were Bruce Weber and Helmut Newton. They had both the hardest and softest touch. I think photography is the sincerest form of promiscuity.

DD: You work both as a fine art photographer and as a fashion photographer. Do you approach the two differently?
Collier Schorr: Not recently. Not editorially. Outtakes of my fashion work have consistently appeared in my books and exhibitions. If I have total control, as in the case of the Dazed portfolio, then I find it boring to differentiate. One could say clothes are a constraint, but I loved having Stefano Pilati's leather YSL shorts for Tati's portrait. I wanted her to be very hard, yet campy, and these leather shorts made that fantasy happen.

DD: You spend the summer living in a small town in Germany and the rest of the year living in New York. What do you get from the two different places?
Collier Schorr: I get a tan in Germany! I also get an alias and a place to invent my biography. There is also a link to the photographers that I think my work engages with, Helmut Newton, August Sander and Thomas Demand among others. In New York I put all the pictures together, I can't edit in Germany, I just amass pictures and references and then cull it in New York.

DD: How does the work you produce in both locations differ?
Collier Schorr: Almost all art photos have been taken in Germany. I used to do a fashion shoot every season in Germany, but it became more and more difficult to do it for some reason. The older I get the harder it is to ask German kids I don't know to be in fashion pictures. They always think it’s for porn.

DD: What are the next few projects you are working on?
Collier Schorr: I'm writing a screenplay and making two books simultaneously. One, called Other Women will be a collection of all my women's portraits from both the art and commercial side of what I do. The other will be an edit of Brooke Shields’ archive. This is a collaborative project we came up with on set when I shot her for Interview Magazine a couple of years ago. More than any other person I can think of she has been an active participant in the making of portraits. She poses like other people breath and it is remarkable how much she knows about photography, representation and the back and forth desire between subject and photographer.

CREDITS

Photography Collier Schorr
Womenswear Styling Katie Shillingford
Menswear Styling Robbie Spencer
Hair David Von Cannon at Bryan Bantry
Make-up (women's) Kristin Gallegos at Bryan Bantry
Make-up (men's) Maki Ryoke at Tim Howard
Models Abiah at Red NYC, Aidan at Ford Models, Aleks at Viva, Ann, Kirby, Taras, Wes at DNA, Aram, Zachary at VNY Models, Bo Don at Marilyn, Lisanne at Elite, Tati, Martin at Next, Mickhael at Request, Tannaz
Casting Noah Shelley for AM Casting
Photographic Assistant Nazita Matres Rezai
Styling Assistants (women's) Marlene Giacomazzo, Nell Kalonji
Styling Assistants (men's) Nicholas Collins, Elizabeth Fraser-Bell, Jonathan Hamit
Make-up Assistant (women's) Aya Komatsu
Lighting Joe Tomcho
Story Layout Matthew Kraus
Special thanks to Tannaz Hazemi

Artwork courtesy of The Artist, Stuart Shave Modern Art and 303 Gallery

1. Mikhael wears leather jacket stylist's own

2. Bo Don wears dress by Jil Sander

3. Lisanne wears check shirt by Levi's Special Edition; Aleks wears t-shirt by American Apparel; jeans by Uniqlo

4. Zachary wears shirt by Levi's; jeans by Hudson; belt by D&G; necklace by Makotto

5. Ann wears shirt by Carven; shorts by Topshop Unique; Kirby wears waistcoat by Lanivin; shorts by Carven

6. Tati wears braces from Beyond Retro

7. Wes wears t-shirt by Franklin and Marshall; jeans by Diesel

8. Tati wears t-shirt by Forte Forte; Trousers by Miu Miu

9. Wes wears headpiece by Sibling; jeans by Levi's

10. Tati wears t-shirt by Carven; shorts by Yves Saint Laurent; boots from Uncle Sam's Army & Navy