Having amassed thousands of photographs and hours upon hours of video footage from his innumerable fashion shoots, Arthur Elgort is about to take strangers behind-the-scenes through a new documentary.
He teamed up with his director and producer son Warren for the new flick, which debuts at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Friday. Partially inspired by “My Architect: A Son’s Journey,” Nathaniel Kahn’s 2003 documentary about his famed architect father Louis, Warren Elgort said viewers won’t just learn about his father’s candid and movement-driven style and legacy in photography and fashion. He said, “I really hope that they are seduced by the inspiring way that he sees and interacts with the world. You get to go behind the curtain and see our private lives to see what this man is like in a three-dimensional way as a father, as a person and a photographer.”
That familial approach mirrors Arthur Elgort’s photographs, which are interspersed throughout the film. “The timeline jumps around a little bit, but everything feels like you’re in the room with us, which goes along with my dad’s experience,” Warren Elgort said.
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As a Vogue photographer for 45 years, the elder Elgort helped to redefine fashion photography by capturing models in motion and creating fantastical shoots with his frequent collaborator Grace Coddington. To give insights to his artistry, the film features interviews with Coddington, as well as Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Karlie Kloss, Bethann Hardison, Condé Nast archivist Ivan Shaw, Raul Martinez and, of course, Arthur Elgort himself.
Warren Elgort said, “Honestly, our cast is an embarrassment of riches. It shows how much all these people love my father. I got in touch with them, and most of them agreed on the spot.”
The project was initiated after Arthur Elgort was diagnosed with lymphoma and Warren Elgort was in film school in 2021. Although the lensman’s health “isn’t perfect,” at 85, he is happy to be alive, according to his son. Having faced adversity before, the photographer had to learn how to talk again and to reuse the right side of his body, after suffering a stroke at the age of 69. The elder Elgort is known to say he already almost died twice, but he still takes photographs every single day.
Once Anne Goursaud came on board as the film’s editor and executive producer, Warren Elgort said he learned more from her than he learned at film school at USC. She worked on a few Francis Ford Coppola films and started out in fashion working for Frances Patiky Stein. Another former fashion force, Hamilton South, is also an executive producer, as is Nancy Frankel Zises.
Combing through his father’s photo archives, the younger Elgort discovered a good number of images of his younger self on Vogue sets such as one in the desert and another where model Nadja Auermann is making a school run with him in the streets of New York City. There is also footage of interview with André Leon Talley not long before his death in 2022. There are also clips that Arthur Elgort filmed years ago of Talley interviewing Karl Lagerfeld in the back of a car. In his own interview for the documentary, Talley credited Arthur Elgort for why he was hired at Vogue. Had he not convinced Talley to interview Lagerfeld and then showed that footage to the magazine’s then-editor in chief, Grace Mirabella, it wouldn’t have happened. Mirabella dubbed Talley “the Howard Cosell of fashion,” referring to the late ABC Sports broadcaster.
Along with Arthur Elgort’s photographs and magazine tear sheets, there were hundreds of hours of archival video footage. From the 1970s on, he always had an assistant filming him at work. Hence, outtakes of The Rolling Stones recording “Tattoo You” at Long View Farm are in the documentary. Viewers will also catch never-before-seen glimpses of Turlington, Evangelista and Campbell early on in their careers.
“For my whole life, it feels like there’s been this jazz score going because he loves jazz. It’s been the soundtrack in our home. I’ve started to realize that he brings a lot of his improvisation into his photography. Nothing is ever posed or static. One idea leads to the next. It’s always moving and trying new things,” Warren Elgort said. “There are a lot of misses. But every wrong note is followed up with another note that, as long as it is in the right scale, it’s OK. He gets people to buy in and trust with his humor. That’s what he has brought to fashion. Now everybody takes pictures that are candid all the time, but it wasn’t always like that.”
Arthur Elgort advised his son to keep the film crew as small as possible, so there were only three people except for one day. Another takeaway for his son was Coddington’s revelation that she loves traveling with Arthur Elgort because a 10-course meal or a sandwich will be appreciated to the same degree. But he draws the line with wine, and travels with his preferred bottles. Warren Elgort’s favorite story occurred on the day that he was born. When Arthur Elgort’s wife — Grethe Barrett Holby — went into labor during a Vogue cover shoot with Turlington, he hightailed it to the hospital to capture the birth on film before rushing back to the set. Apparently, Turlington had gotten bored and invited Evangelista to the set. The latter mocked up a fake Vogue cover “with a big piece of paper that she stuck her head through, because she’d always dreamt of having her own cover,” Warren Elgort said.
To make up for lost time and to photograph multiple looks, Arthur Elgort started putting Evangelista in the shots. As it turned out, Evangelista wound up on the cover. But what struck Warren Elgort was the fact that images of his birth were on the same contact sheet as the Vogue assignment. “That speaks to how there was no real differentiation between my dad’s work and home life. He always has a camera in his hand. He’s never not taking pictures. That’s who he is,” he said.
Understandably, Arthur Elgort is a mentor for all of his three children. His older son Ansel is an actor and his daughter Sophie is a photographer, director and producer. “The love for what he does is so contagious. It’s so clear that he loves photography. He inspired all of us to do what we love. He encouraged us that if we want to be an artist, you could have a wonderful life as an artist,” said Warren Elgort.
