I met Laurence Sackman in 1977; I had just created the modeling agency “FAM”; Louise Despointes and Steve Hiett had told me a lot about him before Laurence even arrived in Paris, telling me how they found him exceptional.
I will never forget the evening when, invited by Rémi, his wife, his muse, his creative shadow behind the first photos of Laurence, I got to know him. He stood back in a room in their apartment on rue Greneta, thin as a blade, wearing a “Stetson”, quite silent. In this intense silence, in his keen eyes of intelligence, I felt at the same time an immense disarray and a deep desire to communicate with any person likely to understand the particular universe which was his: genius and crazy.
Apple their little girl, an exquisite fruit of the love of these two extraordinary beings, played in the room.
Laurence had just arrived in Paris, he was working for Marie-Claire with Claude Brouet, the editor, and Emile Laugier, the artistic director. He was on everyone’s lips at the time. Helmut Newton appointed two heirs at that time: Laurence Sackman and Chris von Wagenheim.
One day, at the request of Yves Saint-Laurent who wanted him to work for a campaign, he participated in the preparatory meeting during which there was an exchange of proposals. He left the meeting saying he was going to think, came back the next day, proposing instead to take the photos on the “MOON”; he was told that they were going to study his proposal … which was never followed up.
Such was Laurence….. A celestial body, a comet which crossed the 80s.
Fabienne Martin
