Nick Knight, Self Portrait (2006)

By Kiša Lala

For its 30th anniversary this August, the now venerable, i-D magazine, has just released three birthday editions shot by photographer Nick Knight. The collectible issues with staggered release dates are titled Then (Pre-Fall), Now (Fall) and Next (Winter) with Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga as cover stars.

Kate Moss, Lady Gaga and Naomi Campbell on the cover of id magazine, 30th-Anniversary

Photographer Nick Knight has been working with i-D since the early years, and the portrait project is one he initiated for i-D’s 5th birthday. In fact, one might say i-D’s look had once been synonymous with Knight’s evolutionary photography in collaboration with the stylist Simon Foxton. Knight’s need to perfect and surpass his previous accomplishments is in keeping with i-D’s continued youthful innovative explorations for over 300 issues.

Lady Gaga by Nick Knight for iD magazine, 2010

Knight also contributed to the i-Dentity series for i-D’s all grown up, 25th anniversary celebrations. The new series of black and white portraits are part of more than 200 images that were shot over a three week period last December at the ShowStudio exhibition at Somerset House, the location most recently used for British Fashion Week.  Knight also shot September’s cover image of Lady Gaga for Vanity Fair.

One of the more intimate portraits of issue #308 is of Vivienne Westwood with her husband Andreas Kronthaler. In an interview Westwood discusses her working relationship with him, “We can’t start the collection together because what I suggest wouldn’t be right. We start separately and then come together,” she elaborates.

Here’s Nick Knight shooting Vivienne Westwood for the anniversary issue: