Exclusive : John Stoddart

Fame, fantasy, eroticism. John Stoddart is a pioneering, daring photographer as well known for his risque, stocking-ed women as his iconic celebrity portraits. Now, in his forthcoming exhibition he takes on Salome and UK porn. Loma-Ann Marks caught up with him.

I’m not sure what I’m going to make of John Stoddart. One of London’s ‘name’ photographers his images are high-class, dramatic, edgy. He’s snapped the likes of Iggy Pop, Martin Scorcese, Prince Charles and Tony Blair, and first revealed Liz Hurley and Catherine Zeta Jones as sex bombs when everyone else was putting them in floral frocks and ballet pumps.

But, he’s been criticised for misogyny, particularly for setting up some  female subjects to look as though they’ve been murdered: lying prostrate, in their underwear, surrounded by police tape.
And now his forthcoming dual exhibition is even more challenging and controversial.
Flowers in a Dark Room, tackles the ultimate temptress, Salome. Based on Caravaggio’s painting John has created a triptych, accompanied by poems by John Armstrong. The exhibition continues with his photographs both old and new, including portraits of Marco Pierre White and Daniel Craig.
And in the gallery basement, behind a velvet rope, past a bouncer and for over-18’s only is Dirty Little Pictures : 68 images ( “ some say I should have had 69” ) taken on the set of a UK porn film.
I’m expecting him to be a bit of a player and have a lot of ego.

Actually, I couldn't be more wrong. John arrives for our interview, immaculate in a posh suit, groomed hair and all smiles, and out pops a Lily Savage accent that makes everything he says sound friendly and familiar.
So: “ they were all walking round with hard-ons!” is perfectly acceptable lunchtime chit-chat.
Which , of course, begs the question: how did he get involved with photographing the , er, back-end of the porn industry.
“One of the things that made me want to do it was a trip to Pompeii. I went to the whore house , which was amazing. Really fascinating. Over each bed was a picture of a  sexual act. So they’d go to the bed and do that.  So porn’s been around forever.
“And then I got more interested. Britain as a major western country was the last country to make pornography. And so it’s got a naivety compared to US porn, which can be brutal and awful.
“So I met the guy from a porn film company and asked if I could go on the set. I never got paid. To do a document of these people.
“The first picture I did was a disaster. I shot it in colour, did all the wrong angles. It looked like really crap porn.
So I went away, and then made most of them like portraits, but I’ve done them deliberately quite brutal. They’re not beautiful pictures, they shouldn’t be beautiful.
I used a big camera so the quality’s excellent. Flash on camera, black and white, quite harsh.
“A lot are very defiant, standing there stark naked, others are like action shots ( much laughter ) and there might be the make- up artist on the phone to her friend, or the cameraman looking round filming.
“What I did pick up -  and I’m not going to defend or publicise it,  I’m totally not moral about porn, there’s a lot worse things in the world I think - all I could see was that these were all adults. Also they love their job.”

John’s quick and seems to have boundless energy ( he explains that his shoots take about half an hour, otherwise the momentum goes ) and talks eloquently about his experience. How did he feel on the set? Was he ever embarrassed?
“No, it’s funny. There were guys walking around with hard –ons, girls sticking things into each other.. But that’s what it’s about. And it’s a business. It’s all about money.”

There is a charge that the industry is misogynistic…
“To be honest I don’t really watch that much porn. If it’s on then I would. But then most people would just because we’re fascinated by what other people look like. Some of the girls do get screwed up about it, pardon the pun. But from what I saw they all seem to really get on. Everything they do is … well, there’s no brutal behaviour. It’s what’s happening every Friday night up and down the country.”
He makes being a porn star sound like a valid career choice. Which of course, for some, it is.
“They’ve got a years supply of girls waiting to make these films.There’s agencies. Seriously!  From all over England, especially in the north.
And I tell you now, the things that happen. Well, it’s an education. There’s no holds barred.
“But it’s not erotica. It’s like watching EastEnders except they all have sex. Or Emmerdale.”

Yet there’s a contradiction. We have an idea of British porn being all dodgy wallpaper and bad lighting, whereas his pictures are high quality.
“ I think I wanted to get back to the basics of photography. And I’ve thought this just talking to you now. Because photography is a very human thing.”
Photography is human, but porn is, what? Insensitive? De-valuing sex? Bringing it down to its lowest common denominator?
I’ve seen the Dirty Little Pictures, and like any good photographer John gets to the heart, the essence of what is really going on.  And actually, he’s right. The pictures are very human. They’re very melancholic.

He’s used to photographing top models and 'A' Listers. How did the porn stars compare?
“They’re not models. No. And I say this with kindness, they are average people. But that’s what they want. They want availability. Not like Helmut Newton pictures, who are  goddesses, ice-maidens, these girls and the guys, literally were people you’d have a drink with. And we would all go for a drink afterwards.”
What do they do otherwise?
“One of the cameramen works for the BBC! They’re all different ages, there’s make up artists. I don’t want to sound like I’m defending this industry because I honestly don’t know everything about it, and there are cases of exploitation.”

All John’s career, which he says began properly in 1985 when he moved  from his native Liverpool to London and began photographing rock stars,has been, as well as the high-profile celeb portraits, photographs of women in various states of undress.
“I’ve always loved erotica, especially in photography. I love Guy Bourdain  who’s extremely erotic, Newton  of course. I’m drawn to that type of woman, it’s fantasy driven I suppose.
“But I do photograph men , it’s 50/ 50, but I guess I get known for the women. And I do get criticised, remarkably, mainly by men. Women want me to photograph them.
“A lot of photographers who do sexy pics do the cheesy Page 3 types. I used to work a lot on Loaded when it started and we did some really high end shoots. But now the pictures are crap. It’s a really crap magazine now. There’s something manufactured about it.”

I’m keen to know what he thinks about digital photography, and what his views are on the whole re-touching debate. Does this create the manufactured look he’s talking about?
“I think ( David ) Bailey often hits it on the button. He says the problem with digital is that everything starts to look the same. There’s something plastic about it, a familiar look. I shoot 80% film still”
Does he re-touch his images?
“We scan the negatives and do them as digital print, that’s been a great advance.
“But I find the ( digital) kit isn’t as good. Cameras now feel like phones. Of course, there are some high end ones. They cost about £20,000.
People forget that photographers like the kit. Cameras are nice. I like closing the back, winding the film on, the noise…”

John seems fed up with homogenised celebrity, and super-smooth, line-free faces staring out from magazine covers. But, as a celebrity and portrait photographer, where does that leave him?
“The trouble is, these days, what is a celebrity? I even hate the word celebrity. I could be classed as a celebrity photographer but I don’t say that. I say I take photos of film stars or rock stars. And this is why the industry is disappearing, celebrity is someone who comes second in X Factor.
“I used to go off and photography Gregory Peck or Michael Caine, Mel Gibson, Martin Scorcese.Now you don’t get near these people because of the publicists.
Now all the pictures are of Lily Allen falling out of a taxi showing her knickers.. All that type of shot. I’ve seen a deterioration in photography because of the deterioration in celebrity.
“All I see are really boring, tedious, pictures. You hardly ever see great new photography. Look at a Sunday supplement and start counting how many retro and vintage photography stories they run.”
But, there are still decent photographers around today, aren’t there? What does he think of Rankin? He’s regarded by many as a groundbreaking contemporary snapper.
There’s a very long – and uncharacteristic - pause.
“You know, I think he’s over prolific. Hmm. He’s a lot of froth and no coffee.”
But then he quickly warms to his theme.
“Looks nice in the cup but then try and taste it. You’ve got to hand it to him, though. He’s a master of PR.
"I dunno. He’s probably the biggest photographer in London. Then again, the second biggest, that guy really struggling for work, the multi-millionaire rock star, Bryan Adams. Yeah, thanks Bryan. He’s a proficient amateur. There he is doing M&S campaigns and photography is on its knees. There’s a lot of us pissed off by it all.”
John is clearly old-school. And despite his famous name and stand-out images he’s down –to-earth: a photographer’s photographer with absolutely no airs and graces. He’s in it for the click of the camera.

He’s snapped some of the world’s biggest stars, but who would he like to immortalise?
“I’d love to photograph Scarlett Johansson, I can’t take my eyes off her. Er..who else? Most of them are bloody dead.
“Oh, I tell you who.. I saw him the other day.. Mickey Rourke, he was in the brasserie up here. He looked totally insane, but he looks good. It’s like the Robert Downey Jnr. syndrome. They go through a really dark time and come out the other side. People who have a clean life just look boring. You know what I mean? Would I want to photograph Hugh Grant again? No. Why?
 “But Pierce Brosnan was lovely, Vivienne Westwood is fantastic. Gilbert and George were great.
“ I’d like to photograph Amy Winehouse. I like people who have been bruised a bit, they give me something different . Rather than the plastic people. You know, the TV types. Like Anthea Turner, thank God she’s been dumped.
“She was rude, this was years ago by the way. She arrived with five people in tow, didn’t even introduce any of  them or say hello. Locked herself in make-up, did her repertoire of poses then pissed off.
“The very next day I went to Claridges. Martin Scorcese opened the door and we watched the movie Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion. He asked if he should get changed. He was interested in the process. Mick Jagger’s the same.”
People who are really creative appreciate what he’s doing and want to be part of it?
“Exactly. That’s it exactly. They want to be part of creating the photograph. Others just use it for PR reasons.”
 “I don’t want to get too cynical about it. It’s all over the place that we’re dumbing down."
John’s clearly frustrated about how carefully vetted, approved and on-message photographs have hi-jacked what is essentially a very creative industry.
And the refreshing thing is that he practices what he preaches. He's honest. He’s not thinking of the angle, unless it’s from a camera.

How does he prepare for a shoot?
“It’s the big picture. I’ll hang it on something: a painting, an album cover, a movie… I don’t re-create the movie but that can be the influence. I like working with amateurs rather then models. They give me something different.
"Liz Taylor was a big influence. And I love a hint of something. All the stockings in my pictures are nylon, no lycra. It’s from my aunties when I was a little kid. And they photograph better.”
After nearly 30 years in the business, what keeps him motivated?
“Photography is an incredibly emotional and immensely human experience. I know some high artists dismiss it. But we have a photo of a little baby in your wallet, or your mother. Photography is immensely powerful. I love photography. I love it more than anything else in the world.”
And that’s why his pictures, risque subject-matter and all, are so striking and remain memorable. Because they’re about the joy of photography. With his ego firmly out of the frame.

Flowers in the Dark and Dirty Little Pictures, La Galleria Pall Mall, Royal Opera Arcade, London, SW1Y 4UY, 3rd - 17th February. Admission : FREE