Kiss Me Quick

Kiss Me Quick

21 July, 2008
by: Tom Jeffreys

Andy Warhol once said that two people kissing always look like fish. But he said a lot of things, most of which were nonsense. Photographer and stylist Gregg Stone is organising a great big kissathon in Carnaby Street that'll hopefully prove old Andy wrong.

Inspired by Robert Doisneau's famous 'Kiss' image, and by the vibrancy of the youth of Carnaby Street, Stone aims to capture images of a wide range of pecks, snogs, and smackers. A whole host of the weird and the wonderful have been flocking to Carnaby Street in recent weeks to kiss on camera in the name of art. The project is clearly about the vibrancy of youth culture and about celebrating diversity, but Spoonfed always likes to know that little bit extra, so your correspondent had a quick chat with Gregg Stone to discover his personal motivation behind the project.

But first, a wee bit of background: Having fallen in love with 'the glamour of Saturday afternoon movies', Stone went on to study film and photography at Central St Martin's. Since graduation, he has become something of a polymath: he's shot ad campaigns for the Pet Shop Boys, styled top-end fashion shoots for Absolute London and AXM, and even produced an evening of Burlesque for Stephen Fry at Hardy Amies.

But is there anything that links all these diverse things together? Well, yes actually. Stone has always been interested in the strange and the surreal, what he describes as 'looking at things from a different angle'. He cites a particular image that stands out in his memory: a photograph of his grandmother and her twin sister in full early 30s flapper costume. It is an image that he describes as 'very haunting and yet, at the same time, very stylish'. This contrast between the stylish and the eccentric characterises all of Stone's work and that he hopes will carry over to the 'Carnaby Kiss' series.

What makes this project different, however, is the use of 'real' people rather than professional models. The uncertainty of the outcome is clearly what excites Stone: he has no idea what kinds of people might turn up: 'there might be bands of cheerleaders or biker drag queens or gangs of men dressed as sailors – who knows?' he laughs. Because of the nature of the process, 'Carnaby Kiss' is 'still an evolving idea' and that is very much part of the appeal: 'I genuinely think it could be amazing', he says.

The really exciting thing about this project is that it's not just about Stone's creativity and vision, but also about the fact that anybody can join in. The finished collection will be displayed in the Carnaby Gallery and the exhibition opens appropriately enough on Valentine’s Day. Stone sees 'the kiss as a kind of whoosh moment when time stands still', and what could be more romantic than having your own 'whoosh moment' recorded as art forever?

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Tom Jeffreys