Corinne Day

• Name — Corinne Day • Born — 19 February 1962 • Died — 27 August 2010 • Occupation — Fashion photographer • Years Active — 1989–2010 • Website — www.corinneday.com

Corinne Day grew up in Ickenham with her younger brother and her grandparents. She left school aged sixteen and worked as an assistant in a local bank. After a year at the bank she became an international mail courier. It was during this period that someone suggested she try modelling—she worked consistently as a catalogue model for several years.

• Illustration — Day photographed Kate Moss for her first Vogue cover in 1993. During the early 1990s Day continued to work with The Face, as well as a number of magazines associated with youth and counter culture, including, i-D, Ray Gun and Penthouse, working with models including Moss, Rosemary Ferguson and George Clements. In 1993, Day was commissioned by Alexandra Shulman to photograph Moss for the June issue of the British edition of Vogue. Intended as a lingerie fashion spread, the editorial, "Under Exposed" depicted the 19-year-old Moss in her west London flat, which she shared with her then boyfriend, fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti. The images caused a media scandal, with The Independent claiming that the images were hideous, exploitative, verging on child pornography.

Day retreated from fashion work in the wake of the heroin chic debate, instead choosing to tour America with the band Pusherman and concentrate on her documentary photography. She also undertook work photographing musicians, including the image of Moby, used on his 1999 album Play. Her autobiographical book, Diary was published by Krus Verlag in 2000, and contained frank and at times shocking images of Day and her friends. The images in Diary featured young people hanging out, taking drugs and having sex, and have been compared to the documentary realism of Nan Goldin. Coinciding with the publication of Diary, Day had two large scale exhibitions in London in 2000. Gimpel Fils gallery exhibited portrait photographs depicting Day's friend Tara St. Hill, and The Photographers' Gallery showed selected works from Diary. In addition to these solo exhibitions, Day also participated in the exhibitions Imperfect Beauty at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, curated by Charlotte Cotton in 2000; Chic Clicks at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, curated by Ulrich Lehmann in 2002; Not in Fashion, Museum für Moderne Kunst MMK, Frankfurt, 2010. During the 2000s Day returned to fashion photography, working for British, French and Italian Vogue, Arena and Vivienne Westwood, amongst others. During this time she also photographed film actors Nicolas Cage, Sienna Miller and Scarlett Johansson.

In 2007, Day was invited to participate in the exhibition "The Face of Fashion", curated by Susan Bright at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The exhibition also included work by Day's contemporaries Mario Sorrenti and Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott. Images by Day in the exhibition included early photographs of Rosemary Ferguson from an editorial for L'Uomo Vogue, 1993; Kate Moss, for Vogue, 1993 and Georgina Cooper, for RayGun, 1994. For the exhibition, Day was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to create a new portrait of Kate Moss for its collection. Discussing the shoot, Day said, "I suggested to Kate that we have a conversation about a serious subject. The subject she chose to talk about revealed her true feelings and in turn defined her character." On 7 August 2009, an article on models.com reported that Day had been diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. A fundraising campaign titled Save the Day was organised to raise funds so that Day could receive Insulin Potentiation Therapy Low Dose or IPTLD chemotherapy in Arizona, USA. However, treatments were unsuccessful, and Day died on 27 August 2010.

Diary / Corinne Day; edited by Michael Mack. Recorded as photographer and model.

• Gli scatti di Corinne Day e Kate Moss nella Londra rock anni ’90