Nick Knight Directed Kanye West's "Black Skinhead" Video. So, Who Is Nick Knight?
Find out everything you need to know about the man behind Kanye's latest visuals.
Image via Complex Original
Yesterday, the music video for Kanye West's "Black Skinhead" officially debuted. Unlike the previous leak, this new version is completely interactive, allowing users to control the speed and take screenshots of the arresting visuals that interpolate throughout the song's duration.
The video openswith visuals similar to the ones Kanye had unveiled during his performance at the Governor's Ball festival in June. It mainly features a super-jacked CGI version of Kanye that jumped around and posed like a tortured artist for three minutes. Kanye's avatar momentarily turns into various futuristic monsters, and if you look carefully, you can even see a CGI version of Kanye's dong.
The rapper was initially pissed off about the leak, revealing that he had worked with Nick Knight on the "Black Skinhead" video. He claims he and the visionary director had lost sleep over the video. Find out more about Kanye West's latest high profile collaborator, as we answer Who is Nick Knight?
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Nick Knight is a fashion photographer, music video director, and founder of SHOWstudio.com.
He was born in London in 1958, and studied photography at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design. His photography has documented several societal tabboos, including racism, disability, ageism, and fat-ism. He once stated, "I don't want to reflect social change—I want to cause social change."
Knight almost studied biology for a year to become a doctor, but soon realized the advantages of photography.
He said in an interview that carrying around a camera "was a way to chat up girls."
His first book of photography was published in 1982.
The photographs documented the British subculture of East End skinheads, and were almost all taken in 1980 and 1981. The book, entitled "Skinhead," is widely considered one of the authorative visual texts on the youth movement, and includes several essays on different aspects of skinhead subculture, including some penned by Knight himself. The book was released while Knight was still a student in art school.
It's pretty nifty that both Knight's first recognized work and his latest endeavor have to do with skinheads. It's a subect that has fascinated Knight since he first observed the brutal subculture in the East End. Coincidence? Definitely not.
After his work caught the eye of editors and art directors, Knight was commissioned to shoot 12 catalogues for Yohji Yamamoto in 1986.
This was a time before lookbooks existed, and a label's catalogues and campaigns spoke almost as loudly as the actual clothing. Knight's work for Yamamoto was groundbreaking, and ushered in a school of simplicity that stood in stark contras to the excess and multiplicity of the early and mid-'80s.
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Knight's work for Yamamoto launched his fashion photography career.
His portfolio was soon stuffed with some of the most prestigious client names in the industry. Knight subsequently worked for Jil Sander, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Lancôme, and Levi's.
Knight is the founder of SHOWstudio.com, which launched in 2000.
The site is an online community and platform that pioneered online coverage of the fashion industry, particularly the site's digital fashion films. The site has worked with John Galliano, Kate Moss, Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Alexander McQueen, and a ton of other labels and personalities from all levels of the industry. SHOWstudio was also one of the first to live-stream fashion shows, and has garnered numerous awards for its technological and strategic breakthroughs.
Knight has a uniform style that he's come to develop over the years. It stems from his early obsession with skinheads, and hasn't deviated for some time.
Knight gets all his suits from Carlo Brandelli of Kilgour. His shirts are custom-made by the highly sought-after shirtmaker Frank Foster, and he has a personal last at Tricker's for all his black leather brogues. His Levi's are also bespoke. Every pair has his signature embroidered down the side with a gold silk lining hanging to the knees.
Each piece is meant to replicate what British skinheads would wear. "It's the uniform I've built for myself," says Knight. "I know what I like," he adds firmly, "and I tend to be obsessive about it."
In 2001, Knight directed the "Pagan Poetry" music video for Bjork, and the video immediately caused controversy.
The video depicted abstract images of sex and ejaculation, as well as several grimace-worthy shots of skin being pierced. Bjork also appears topless, wearing only the bottom half of an Alexander McQueen dress. It was banned on MTV in the US.
Knight directed the "Born This Way" music video for Lady Gaga in 2011.
Lady Gaga supposedly knew that she wanted Nick Knight to direct the music video from the beginning. While working on a separate art video, Gaga said that Knight wanted to push herself harder than she ever did before: "So naturally he wanted me to puke on myself and eat a bovine heart and do all sorts of other things."
Knight has worked with Kanye a few times before.
The "Black Skinheads" video won't be the first time these two artists have worked together. Knight photographed Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in the nude for the cover and a spread in L'Officiel Hommes. He also was the one who snapped Kanye's portrait that accompanied the New York Times interview the rapper gave right before the release of Yeezus. And finally, to complement the other big interview Kanye gave before the Yeezus release, Knight created illustrations composed of various abstract images that evoke a conceptual Kanye.
According to a Tweet from Kanye West, he and Nick Knight have been working on the music video for "Black Skinhead" for five months.
And according to a later Tweet, both he and Nick Knight sacrificed sleep in order to complete the video, which will allegedly be released in the next week.