Nick Knight (photographer)
A fashion image-maker who treats photography as a live, digital canvas, constantly reshaping how we see beauty and the body.
Born 1958 (age 68)·British photographer·Birthday: November 24·Baby Boomers
Biography
Nick Knight never saw fashion photography as merely selling clothes. From his early, controversial work for i-D and The Face in the 1980s, he treated it as a radical art form, using then-novel techniques like infrared film to create otherworldly, often unsettlingly beautiful images. His career is a chronicle of technological embrace, from pioneering digital manipulation to founding SHOWstudio in 2000, an online platform that made the creative process—the fittings, the shoots—a public spectacle. Knight's lens has defined the look of Vogue, Dior, and Alexander McQueen, but his subjects are just as often those who challenge conventional norms: he has extensively photographed the model and activist Mama Cāx and created powerful portraits exploring skin conditions. For Knight, the image is never static; it is a starting point for a conversation about perception itself.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Nick was born in 1958, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Nick Was Born
The biggest hits of 1958
#1 Movie
South Pacific
Best Picture
Gigi
#1 TV Show
Gunsmoke
Nick's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1958Born
NASA founded
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Volare" — Domenico ModugnoBest Picture: Gigi
1963Started school
JFK assassinated in Dallas; Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,100Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Sugar Shack" — Jimmy Gilmer & The FireballsBest Picture: Tom Jones
1971Became a teenager
Voting age lowered to 18 in the US
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $18,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Joy to the World" — Three Dog NightBest Picture: The French Connection
1974Could drive
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1976Could vote
Apple Computer founded; US bicentennial
Gas: $0.59/galHome: $29,300Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Silly Love Songs" — WingsBest Picture: Rocky
1979Turned 21
Iran hostage crisis begins; Three Mile Island accident
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $37,900Min wage: $2.90/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"My Sharona" — The KnackBest Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
1988Turned 30
Pan Am Flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $74,800Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Faith" — George MichaelBest Picture: Rain Man
1998Turned 40
Google founded; Clinton impeachment
Gas: $1.06/galHome: $107,300Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Too Close" — NextBest Picture: Shakespeare in Love
2008Turned 50
Barack Obama elected first Black US president; financial crisis
Gas: $3.27/galHome: $153,100Min wage: $6.55/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Low" — Flo RidaBest Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
2018Turned 60
Royal wedding of Harry and Meghan; Parkland shooting
Gas: $2.72/galHome: $211,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Donald Trump"God's Plan" — DrakeBest Picture: Green Book
2026Age 68 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- He founded SHOWstudio.com, the pioneering fashion film and live-streaming website, in 2000.
- His 1992 photograph for Jil Sander, 'Nude, 1992,' sold at auction in 2016 for a record-breaking HKD 2,360,000.
- He directed the iconic music video for Björk's 'Pagan Poetry,' known for its intimate and visceral imagery.
- He has published major retrospective books of his work, including 'Nicknight' (1994) and 'Nick Knight' (2009).
Did You Know?
Knight's first major project, a book of photographs of skin conditions called 'Skinheads,' was published when he was still a student.
He is a passionate gardener and has cited the natural world as a constant inspiration for his use of color and form.
He was awarded an OBE for services to fashion photography in 2010.
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