Inside Sofia Malamute’s treasure trove of candid celebrity photographs

“She likes to document and she’s generous, she admires her subjects,” says photographer and filmmaker Sebastián Faena, characterising the style of his close friend and fellow Argentinian, the photographer Sofia Malamute. “[The book] was initially his idea and he is also referring to the sarcasm of his vanity. Which I love and admire him for,” says Malamute, relaying the genesis of Behind The Scenes and Faena’s foreword, which begins with his claim of instigating the project. “We have this ‘morning call’ where we share ideas and laugh a lot. I have been dreaming of putting a book together for the past couple of years and he gave me the name for it.”

Featuring a heavyweight cast of designers, stylists, musicians and models that includes Kaia Gerber, Rihanna, Marc Jacobs and Virgil Abloh, the monograph was recently published by IDEA (with a forthcoming launch at Milan’s Micamera bookstore on the 20th), and formally announces the b-roll to Malamute’s professional image-making; a catalogue of largely private moments caught between shows and other fashion assignments (she spent two years doing socials for Chanel), circa 2013-2019, just as Instagram started to infiltrate our spare time and prior to Covid-19 reshaping our social lives.

Primarily a work of colour, the images are bookended by two monochrome series’, opening with a picture of fashion editor Anna Dello Russo and concluding with a calming collection of black and white statues, benches and buildings. “The intention is to be an anxiety reliever – soothing images with no subjects, to allow you to take a deep breath and smile without fear, taking in all the information that was just brought to you,” shares Malamute. “Every time I would go through the edit I ended up feeling anxious; I started asking myself questions, and was completely amused at the amount of time invested in endless conversations, nights, fashion shows, backstage scenes and after parties, feeling exhausted, thinking of friends, faces, people, places...”

Every night felt like the end of the world and still we were there dancing – Sofia Malamute

As a viewer at least, this effort and episode of recollection was worth it: Behind The Scenes is a unique visual document that foregrounds, with AAA-type access, a significant time – no doubt to those who appear in the frame but also for those of us who observed it secondhand, mostly via screens, and can subsequently trace a thread between the photographer’s nostalgia and our own. “I like taking pictures in order to remember a feeling, a face, a situation,” she says of her preoccupation with capturing time. “Various components draw me to decide to take a picture, but the main one will always be capturing a moment, turning it into a beautiful memory without judging where I am or who I am shooting.”

“There were thousands of images, so it was very difficult to understand where to cut the cake and which story to tell,” continues Malamute, recalling how she arrived at her final edit and the narrative she hoped to present. As well as the more public venues and personas – the Argentinian model, Mica Argañaraz is another close friend and a key fixture throughout the book – the photographer’s family and personal holidays are also a vital part of the picture. “It was definitely a nostalgic process as well as rewarding; very interesting and introspective, with so much personal affection, to the images as well as the people,” says the photographer.

Ultimately, Behind The Scenes is a celebratory reflection of some precious years that unfolded in tandem with Instagram’s ascent (“It was the Instagram decade,” as per Faena’s logic), recorded instead on a point and shoot. “I was having fun, a lot of fun. I was very intrigued and surprised at everything that I was looking at at that time, and wanted to document a glimpse of what I was feeling,” notes Malamute. “I still am, it’s just different now. Looking back at the material today, every night felt like the end of the world and still we were there dancing.”

Behind The Scenes is published by IDEA and available to order here now.