We’re obsessed with this story behind Milla’s 1994 shoot with Chris Floyd as told by Chris on his blog.
‘This is from a 1994 shoot with Milla Jovovich at her apartment in New York City. I don’t think I’ve looked at the film since I shot it. Seeing it for the first time in 16 years has been a bit of a shock. The thing that immediately came back was the memory of being mugged by a gun and knife wielding duo on the Lower East Side the night before the shoot. My camera was taken from me and I very nearly didn’t get to see the sun come up the next morning when I called the assailants a “bunch of f** c**” as they walked away from me. It was a calculated decision, based on the belief that they were far enough from me to not be bothered about coming back as I uttered the words at them. I was exactly 100% wrong in my calculation. They took it so personally that they decided to try and kill me and the friend I was with by chasing us all the way up Ludlow Street until, at the junction of East Houston we ran into 2 of the NYPD’s coffee slurping, doughnut gobbling finest, hanging out on the bonnet of their blue and white. Saved. The muggers scarpered back the way they came and the Po-Leece were so not arsed about trying to catch them.
The next morning, though, all I had was my other camera – a Contax T2 point & shoot, which you can see Milla holding in some of these pictures. I was so naïve in those days that I don’t think it occurred to me to even try and get hold of a replacement camera from one of New York’s rental houses but, then again, I had no credit card and thus, no means of securing anything I might have wanted. However, David, my fellow muggee from the night before had an old Pentax K1000 and he very kindly let me borrow it.
Looking at the film now, what strikes me is how cavalier I seemed to have been in my methods back then. My choice of film is all over the place. I photographed her on 4 different films: 400 Tri-X, 3200 T-Max, Agfa 1000 E6, Fuji 400 C41. Some of the Agfa I processed as straight E6 and some of it I cross processed in C41, which was all the rage back then. When I look at it now it’s disgusting.
What is absolutely clear, though, is that I was totally experimenting. I had not yet found myself because, at that age, 25, I didn’t know who I was. Nowadays I absolutely know who I am and I’ll shoot in a consistent way throughout so that a portrait session will, in my head, have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end period, because I have learned some craft to go with my art, or if you want to put it this way, I now have some head to balance out my heart. Back then I regarded it all as a bit of a laugh and it’s hard to see why I shouldn’t have. I was photographing people who were the same age as me. We were equals and peers, it felt personal and free, which is just the way it should be.’
More at ChrisFloyd.com
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