As one of fashion’s most in-demand photographers and stylists, respectively, Ethan James Green and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson are used to creating unforgettable images together. But they’re typically crafting editorials and cover stories for A-list stars like Margot Robbie and Gigi Hadid among many others. Their latest collaboration, however, is something altogether different. For Green’s Bombshell series, Karefa-Johnson stepped in front of the camera, and, aside from a pair of Manolo Blahniks (worn for their alluring power), there’s very little fashion. “I want boobs and ass! That’s what I’m trying to give!” says Karefa-Johnson.
Green’s photographs are known for their intimacy and, especially in his personal works, their exploration of beauty beyond staid mainstream standards. But there’s nothing calculated about his methods. Their power comes from their authenticity. For Bombshell, a collection of portraits first featured in book format and is now on view at New York City’s Kapp Kapp gallery through October 26, Green tasked friends, collaborators and muses like Hari Nef, Dara, Martine, and Connie Fleming with inhabiting their deepest bombshell fantasies. Collectively, the project serves not only as an interrogation of what qualifies as “bombshell” beauty but as a powerful body of work created among close-knit friends who encourage you to inhabit your own inner bombshell.
How did the bombshell series come about?
Ethan James Green: [Hairstylist] Lucas Wilson asked to do a hair test with my friend Marx, and it was just this kind of hair play day at my studio. Marx brought lingerie and some things from the flower market. Lucas did really exciting big hair with wigs. The entire day we just kept calling Marx a bombshell. Everyone in the studio was saying “bombshell! bombshell!” There was a formula that revealed itself and we wanted to keep on doing it. Just telling people, let’s do bombshell pictures. Bring what you want to wear, it can be whatever you want. Sit in the hair chair with the hair artist and see where it goes. I’ll just document it.
Gabriella, what was your relationship to the word bombshell?
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson: Like most women, I grew up with the notion that “bombshell” had to mean an overt and very singular type of sexiness. Funnily enough, instead of trying to redefine what that meant in my mind before going to sit for Ethan, I really leaned into the definition that I knew growing up. I was like, “I want boobs and ass! That’s what I’m trying to give!” But ultimately, it’s always been a fraught relationship with that word. I grew up with a definition that didn’t necessarily include someone that looked like me. So it was fun to inhabit the bombshell persona, which was obviously hidden inside of me all these years. Ethan pulled it out.
Did you have any specific references for the shoot?
GKJ: I’m a child of the nineties and grew up in the early 2000s. I thought, well, I’m going to be Tyra Banks in Sports Illustrated, and it didn’t end up being that picture at all. I came in with all this bravado, and Luca did this amazing wig with all the height of the Anna Nicole Smith era. It was something so familiar to me, but I kind of shrinked a little bit. I almost had stage fright, so I didn’t quite get to the Tyra level. I think I’m going to need to do it again with Ethan at some point.
Do you remember the first time working together as stylist and photographer?
GKJ: I think Vogue put us together to shoot Gigi Hadid. It was really magical. Because we knew each other socially before we started working together professionally, there was no pretense. It was just very much organically centering fun, joy and happiness. I think the pictures really reflect that.
EJG: We both come from a similar school with a similar appreciation for how to create a picture. So it makes it really fun to collaborate in different ways.
GKJ: We’re still very excited about fashion and still very much fans of fashion.
How did you determine who would be the subjects for this project?
EJG: A lot of the subjects in the book I get to work with behind the scenes. Everybody was familiar with my work in a way that is much more in-depth than just your average viewer. Being able to collaborate in another way where they understand you and what you want to do is such a privilege. I started with people that are in my life. I’m a workaholic, so many of those people I met through work.
GKJ: Ethan is such an incredible auteur and artful documentarian of our time. It felt like a privilege to be canonized in one of his images and really capture this moment of all of these fabulous women feeling beautiful, empowered, and sexy. Being part of that crew, I was one of the cool kids for the day.
EJG: You’re always one of the cool kids, Gab.
Can you elaborate a little bit about that collaboration between subject and photographer?
EJG: David Armstrong once told me that 90 percent of a picture is who you’re photographing. The more that I photograph, the more I agree with that. Especially if you’re doing something when someone is so comfortable to be vulnerable with you. If you’re doing a sexy picture, that person’s giving you a lot. If you don’t have the right person who’s in it with you, you can’t go far.
Gabriella, you’ve been in front of the camera before. You’ve been in W. Do these experiences give you a new point of view when you’re working behind the scenes?
GKJ: Absolutely. It’s such an extraordinary labor to be vulnerable in someone else’s eyes, and going from behind the camera to in front of the camera really refracted that experience for me. I understood that sometimes that trust and connection with the person behind the lens is so much more powerful than sometimes I give credence to. Whether it’s giving direction or being able to interpret somebody’s body language for slight insecurity, Ethan so adeptly manages that relationship. It also gave me a new perspective on working with him as a stylist because I was like, ‘Oh my God, this man is pulling double duty over here!’ He is really locked into making the experience smooth, easy and comfortable for the model while delivering the picture and staying true to his vision. I just had a brand new respect because I have been in front of the camera before, but not in front of a camera like Ethan’s camera, so that was very special.
That relationship really comes across in the photographs.
GKJ: My only regret is that I wasn’t fully nude. I’m like, I should have popped those panties right off.
EJG: There’s still time, Gabs!
GKJ: Good! See you at the studio in t-minus six hours! [Laughs]. There is a real intimacy in the relationship because it’s not like, ‘Okay, pose, I’m taking the photo.’ He is finding the in-between and most honest moments.
Ethan, a lot of your personal work has been more documentarian and a lot of your fashion work is necessarily more fantasy. Where do you think this project lies on that spectrum?
EJG: It lands kind of in the middle. There’s always going to be a bit of fashion to my work, even if it’s personal, but because it was this kind of playing around with a character and bringing in people like Lucas [Wilson] or Sonny [Molina] or Jimmy [Paul], people doing the hair, it really opens up a possibility that isn’t normally there. I was documenting a lot of other people’s fantasies or their idea of this bombshell character. There were elements of the fashion image, but with the freedom of a personal project. So it was a really fun mashup. I like that middle point.
GKJ: Were you shocked or surprised by the persona anyone inhabited? I feel like everyone in the book is already very much a bombshell and hot in life.
EJG: All the people I asked, I could feel that that bombshell character was there. I already saw them as a bombshell in a way. A lot of my friends enjoy making pictures, but also existing in them. It can get competitive, which is really fun.
Do you think your idea of what bombshell means changed during the process?
EJG: I went into it thinking if someone wants to be a bombshell, they’re a bombshell. All you have to do is want to be a bombshell.
Why do you think people want to be a bombshell?
EJG: It’s a powerful feeling. I think most people want to be sexy, right?
GKJ: In the era of demure, you want to be sexy.
It must have been a rush inhabiting that character.
GKJ: Something changes chemically in your brain. It was a very addictive feeling. I didn’t want the shoot to end. It was so painful, but I was like, I have to keep these fucking Manolos on the entire time. It’s giving me something. I’m not always in Manolos, I’m not always showing it all and being really bare in all senses of the word. I want to do it again. It feels like a fantasy.
