2010, from Autobiography, in my iPad application Horvatland
Moutin liked extraordinary scenarios, whose costs amazed his manager – but which he didn’t seem to mind. Such as a parody of Arsène Lupin, a fictional gentleman robber, or a studio reconstruction of a clockmaker’s shop, or a shopping scene at Cartier’s with a model dressed up as a film star and holding a tame lion on a leash. I enjoyed playing the role of film director, while on the other hand the handiness of the 35 mm camera allowed me to shoot without a tripod and to make these pre-arranged situations look like candid shots. In time, I learned how to direct a group of assistants and to set up the lighting as if for a cinema shoot. However, my speciality remained ‘fashion in the street’ – which didn’t mean that I always photographed outdoors, just that I tried to show women as you might imagine them in everyday situations. For the editors, this was the journalistic equivalent to the shift from high fashion to ready-to-wear, which they saw as the main source of their future revenue. For me, it fitted in with my own fantasies of feminine encounters: not only had I never come close to a woman wearing Haute Couture, but the very idea of meeting one never crossed my mind!
1957, Paris, for Jardin des Modes, fashion shooting inspired by Arsène Lupin
