Eric Guillemain teams up with models and the Environmental Justice Foundation.
By Bianca Posterli
The Environmental Justice Foundation focuses on bringing awareness to the world regarding the abuses occurring to our environment. EJF asked Eric Guillemain to collaborate on a project, which brought together models and designers to spread EJF’s message to the fashion world. Many girls—including Lily Cole, Erin O’Connor, Kirsty Hume, Coco Rocha, Irina Lazareanu, Catherine McNeil, Behati Prinsloo, Caroline Trentini, Heidi Mount, Diana Moldovan, Chanel Iman, Shannan Click, Siri Tollerød, Lisa Cant, Julia Dunstall, Ali Stephens, Aline Weber, Daul Kim, Hye Park, Karlie Kloss, Sessilee Lopez, Sheila Marquez, Anne Vyalitsyna, Eniko Mihalik, Magdalena Frackowiak, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Alyona Osmanova, Ekat Kiseleva, Anabela Belikova, Elise Crombez, Kori Richardson, and Olga Sherer—donated their time to pose for Eric to aid this foundation. What an impressive model lineup!
Eric photographed Chanel Iman for the 2008 EJF campaign.
How did you become involved with the Environmental Justice Foundation?
I was contacted by people from WildAid organization, which is linked with EJF to shoot just one portrait of a model, but I felt I had to do something bigger than that and tried to get other models to get involved. It’s been a real success.
Why is this important to you?
I grew up as a singer, writing my own lyrics; now I use my eyes and my heart to take photos. If you don’t connect to your world, if you don’t feel you must have a relationship with your environment based on sanity and generosity how could you pretend to create something and deliver it to the people. It would be nonsense to pollute what you are made of. In my opinion, literally pirating in every way to satisfy endless appetites and then calling yourself an “artist” would be an extremely degrading attitude.
This campaign could have been entirely celebrity-based, but models were chosen as well. What is it that models bring to table?
Supermodels are made of flesh plus bones plus heart, and they are facing a tough world like everybody else. So this is how I wanted to shoot them. I was relating to what was in danger in their very bodies: Their specificities as women, their child hearts, their vulnerabilities. It is not acceptable to refer or to defend a supposed endangered world if you are not ready to relate or to connect as an individual. This is what we did. Even when you create—especially in the fashion world—you cannot do it at the expense of making people suffer. Beautiful clothes need beautiful minds.
How does it feel to be able to use your talent for such a worthy cause?
I think this is my duty. I don’t feel either proud or brilliant. I had no choice. Some people indulge cynicism in that matter. But this is not an intelligent option. This is not easy to be generous and this is not easy not to fall for negativism and open up yourself to gentleness and compassion. You need courage. I will give all credit to the girls. They are tough and courageous ones. Great, great, great women.
Which girls do you still want to shoot for EJF? Why these girls?
I will shoot any of them, and anybody ready to truly invest some of their time and get involved.
Were many of the girls aware of the cause beforehand? How did they feel about the organization after the shoot?
EJF was unknown by most of the girls. I was explaining everything before shooting and how I wanted them to act. I think they felt more connected to themselves after the shoot and therefore to the world. That was the point.
Ali Stephens, Hanne Gaby Odiele, and Magdalena Frackowiaki all appeared in the 2009 campaign.
Each shirt from the 2008 session was styled by Alicia Lombardini. Yuji Takenaka styled Bianca Balti, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Sessilee Lopez, Anne Vyalitsyna, Daul Kim, and Ekat Kiseleva for the 2009 session, and the other girls were styled by Anastasia Marano. Upon arrival at Eric’s apartment, the girls picked shirts out of the box and posed for an average of 15 minutes for the one perfect shot. After the experience was over, Eric was touched, explaining his favorite memory as, “The very whole thing. Every moment. The easy connections, the tougher ones…the small tears and the big hugs. And I remember when everything was done. I was standing alone in my room and about to break the whole set. I was really heartbroken.”
See the entire 2008 and 2009 campaigns.
