California Desert

Models: Gia Carangi, Donna Sexton and Matt Collins
Chris von Wangenheim photographer ~ John Sahag hair ~ Ariella makeup ~ Vogue fashion editor Jade Hobson

Vogue US 1979 February issue

“The New York Spring Collections: Evening, A World Apart, The Best Looks at Night“
Soggy Dry Lake, Lucerne Valley, CA 92356
http://www.lucernevalley.net/soggy/

Chris von Wangenheim and Jade Hobson arrange the photo shoot for the California desert and the crew flew into Palm Springs November 16, 1978 for the four day shoot.

The shoot location was in the middle of the flat, hard desert in the nearby Luzerne Valley. To take advantage of the variously wonderful effects of the desert sun, they shot during all the available daylight. To get to the location, they had to fly in helicopters, which Von Wangenheim would eventually incorporate into the pictures as well.

John Sahag: “God, I remember waking up at four or four-thirty each morning. We had to fly up over the hills to get to the site. This guy had a helicopter, he used it the way you park your car in the garage. We’d be out there at five o’clock, so cold we were all wearing furs. By midday, we were all half-naked.”

Over the next four days, the alternately freezing and perspiring crew executed a portfolio of shots that would become instant classics when they appeared in the February 1979 issue of American Vogue. One shot in particular, an overhead shot of Gia and the other two models shielding their eyes from the wind of the helicopter, —which is visible only in shadow— would be collected in most of the major books on commercial photography in the seventies. “Fashion Theory” being one of those books.

Un-published shots