MICK HUCKNALL (SIMPLY RED)
March 1996
Mick was to be the last celeb portrait I shot in Tokyo. I was gone a few months later to resettle in Australia. Simply Red were touring Japan, and FIGARO were doing a profile on Hucknall. In person he had a very ruddy complexion, good thing I was shooting B&W.
As a way of relaxing the subject, breaking down the veneer, I like to casually engage them in conversation while I'm shooting. May be I just got him on an off day, but I could tell his cordial replies were paper thin. The tour was heading off to Australia after Japan, so I tried to steer talk to that subject. Soon enough he off handedly spat out “Australia, Australia, stop asking me questions!” I was on borrowed time, conversation wasn’t going to work. I’d been told he had a diamond imbedded in one of his incisors, so to finish off I asked if I could get a few closer frames with his smile. He begrudgingly obliged, then I called it quits.