«For photographers fashion week means mock military manoeuvres with us lugging our heavy gear around.»
Name: Cynthia Anderson
Age: 43
Nationality: American
Occupation: Fashion photographer
Likes: Shooting backstage
Dislikes: Mayonnaise
1. What do you wear to fashion week? The most unglamorous things you can imagine. For photographers fashion week means mock military manoeuvres with us lugging our heavy gear around, marching across the city and grabbing rest, often on the ground, where we can.
2. Which designer’s shows always make for the best shots? I love the showmanship of Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo where they really think about staging. Past favorites that come to mind include Facetasm, Mint Designs, Onitsuka Tiger × Andrea Pompilio and Alice Auaa.
3. What is it like in the photographer’s pit mid-show? If everything is going as planned, then you will only hear the clatter of shutters. If something is going wrong, then there is a lot of swearing — but only in English and Italian!
4. What makes a show a nightmare to shoot? Lack of adequate light, narrow runways and models that only walk up one side on a dreaded U-shaped runway.
5. What is your biggest worry as the lights dim for the start of a show? Do I have the correct memory cards in? I am always jet-lagged, so forgetting to switch my card and running out of memory mid-show is a real threat.
6. How many shots do you have to sort through for each show? Around 500.
7. How much gear are you carting around on a daily basis? Two full frame bodies, an external flash, at least three lenses, one monopod, one “turtle” (a small plastic stepladder). In all, it weighs about 12 kilograms.
8. What are you doing in your down time during the week? Trying to find speedy internet so I can upload photos to the photographic press agency, Rex Features, and trying to squeeze as much shopping and sushi-eating in as humanly possible.
