It’s a blustery, moist, virtually-fall day in London, and Piers Hanmer has the job of making transportive backdrops for a perfume marketing campaign that replicate energetic scenes in Greece and Morocco. “Santorini and Marrakech have to return to us with our two bloody monumental units,” he says, his voice echoing across the small set aspect room. Hanmer has spent over twenty years working as a set designer, creating a number of the most vibrant, elaborate tableaux for Annie Leibovitz, Craig McDean, Willy Vanderperre, Steven Meisel, and Steven Klein. “I reside on picture shoots. My ft are on concrete 12 hours a day.”
Distracted by Fashion is Hanmer’s new e book, tracing an period of liberated, energetic journal editorials. In some ways, it captures a misplaced time: “There’s nonetheless plenty of editorial, however there’s not a lot set design—nor the budgets we as soon as had,” says Hanmer. “There’s much less alternative to push the envelope.” It’s additionally a compendium of an artist working behind the scenes, who cast an period’s aesthetic, and who perhaps doesn’t get the identical recognition as his photographer or stylist collaborators.
“Fairly selfishly, I wished to place collectively one thing that was simply my work, so once I’m previous, I can see my contribution to this insane trade that we love,” Hanmer says.
Photograph: Courtesy of Mörel Books
