Photographer Sophie Elgort hails from a famously creative family: her father is legendary lensman Arthur Elgort and her brother is actor Ansel Elgort. And now, Sophie plays a starring role in a new series Portrait Mode with Sophie Elgort. PETER DAVIS speaks with Elgort about her debut show.
How did you land your own TV show?
During the pandemic, I was doing interviews on Instagram with my dad about different photos he’d taken. We called it “Behind the Lens with Arthur Elgort.” Then, Diane Masciale from WNET and I came up with Portrait Mode with Sophie Elgort, where I speak to fellow creatives about their process. It’s an interview show that brings the viewer behind the scenes on a photo shoot.
How cool. Photo shoots are always very chatty.
When photographing people, I am always chatting with them the whole time, learning their story. People become at ease when you spend a bunch of time with them with a camera in between you versus sitting down for a formal interview. I get to learn about them via what they say, and also get a window into who they are based on what they do and their actions in front of my camera.
You have shot so many major people. Who did you score for the show?
One of the subjects is Nile Rodgers. Nile came with his hitmaker guitar, that he’s written all his major songs on. And we have this award-winning musician just riffing on this guitar, telling stories. We have Rita Moreno and Skylar Brandt, a principal at American Ballet Theatre, and my dad, because that was how this whole idea started.
Rita Moreno is iconic!
Rita has had the longest career and most amazing life. She’s in her 90s. I had a lot of research to do. I read her book, watched her documentary, read every news article I could find and interviews that she’s done, and listened to her on podcasts. I watched all her movies. At one point, Rita broke into an acapella version of a jazz song. With my dad you get to see him in action. We go onto the streets because so much of what he does is use New York City as a canvas. He was one of the first people to take the model out of the studio and put them on the street. We got to see him in these places that he’s shot for decades.
You need to have your movie-star brother Ansel on the show.
I would totally do that. I figured to start I shouldn’t fill up all my spots with just family.
What was it like being in front of the camera as opposed to behind?
I was kind of both in this sense because I was behind the still camera, but in front of the video cameras. I grew up in front of my dad’s camera, so I am not self-conscious in front of cameras.
You’re always so stylish. What did you wear to meet Nile Rodgers, who is a fabulous force of fashion too.
For Nile, I wore a pretty epic Akris suit. It was a lot more fashion than I would normally wear to a shoot. And Nile was like, “Wow, that’s a great suit. Do you think I could try it on?” He ended up in my jacket. He was dancing around in it, and I was taking his picture.
If you’re reading this, Akris, send Nile Rodgers that jacket ASAP! You have three adorable small kids. Do they love posing for the camera?
Sometimes I’ll use them as the subjects. They’re young, so I have to have a few people literally chasing them around. One time I did a kid shoot, and they had a child wrangler—they can get kids to do anything.
As an interviewer, do you like being interviewed yourself?
I was at a dinner next to Marina Testino and was telling her about the show. She said, “You should have them turn the camera around on you.” We did that for every episode. It was hysterical. They took the camera and would do my picture and direct me. Rita Moreno was trying to get me to act. I was like, “Rita, I’m not an actor.” It was a pretty funny scenario.
Is there anyone that you’ve photographed you wish you would been filming at the same time?
I photograph a lot of personalities. John Waters, for example, would be amazing. And Brooke Shields. I photographed Clive Davis for Avenue and he would be epic.
Let’s make that happen.
