Good Reads | A Look at Steven Klein

I think what happens is that you do the project first, then you think about what it’s about, ... Years later, you figure out why you’ve done things.

Steven Klein, Hiding Behind the Camera

 

Steven Klein, the photographer and auteur of this vaguely sinister spectacle, wasn’t about to clear up the mystery. “I like what’s obscure,” he said simply.

Of course.

Mr. Klein, after all, has long been an enigma in the world of style, cultivating a sphinxlike mystique by hiding in plain sight. It is not by chance that the self-portrait on this page was backlit to mask his features. Yet he makes no secret of trading in shock effects. Of the oxygen mask Ms. Valletta wore, he said, “I put it there to disturb people.”