Arca

London, April 1991

MH: For whom did you take the picture and what camera did you use?

KC: NME. Hasselblad 500CM.

MH: What do you remember about the shoot?

KC: It was their first NME cover. The cloth is gold Sari material. I wanted to exaggerate the trash aesthetic of the band. Nicky Wire (with ›Culture Slut‹ on his chest) and Richey Edwards were the two most distinctive members of the band and I made the decision to concentrate on the two of them rather than shooting a full band shot. I didn’t feel the other two – James and Sean – added anything to their look at that time. It was virtually unknown to not put the lead singer on the cover.

MH: Richey Edwards went missing in 1995 and was ›presumed dead‹ in 2008. He was the ideological head of the group. Who is he in the picture? Did you discuss with Richey the band’s (socialist and existentialist) views and ideas?

KC: I talked to Richey a lot – but only in the way I talk to bands generally. I’ve worked with the Manics at different stages of their career. I may include a few more shots of Richey over the coming months. I’ll discuss those then.

MH: Whose idea was the ›Culture Slut‹ slogan? Were they serious about that or was that just to wind-up people? I mean: were they having a laugh? It’s interesting to compare the power of the slogan to the ›Czech Post‹ in the Pet Shop Boys portrait (see below).

KC: They were into slogans and tragic Hollywood blondes and all the kind of obvious imagery young people grow up with.  I wrote ›Culture Slut‹ on Nicky. It was often part wind-up but also part of their image. They were also very into The Clash – hence the similar style of dress in the early days. Combat fatigues and slogans… Prior to my taking the photo Richey took a school-style drafting compass out of his bag and scratched HIV crudely into his neck. However, because he was doing it in the mirror, he wrote it in reverse. It was clearly intended to be provocative, but the impact was lost by his schoolboy error.

MH: The two have injuries on their necks. Or are these marks you get from sucking on the skin? There’s a nice German word for that: ›Knutschfleck‹ (›snogg spot‹).

KC: ›Love-bites‹ in English. Yes. They both went to a club the night prior to the shoot and asked girls to give them love-bites to accentuate the trash aesthetic.