South-african photographer and founder of Mirage Magazine, Henrik Purienne shot the most beautiful girls all around the world.

We had the chance to interview him last year and as admirers of his unique eye, decided to let him behind the camera for Maison Kitsuné spring/summer 2014 ambiant lookbook. 

Capturing truth and inspiration, he strolled around the city with our three protagonists – Sky Ferreira, Heather Boo and Jonny Pierce.

Kitsuné Journal wanted to know everything about this new experience; illustrate New York – New Wave with a new interview !

We had the chance to interview you last year, hello again ! 

New Year. New Interview.

What  does “New York – New Wave” mean to you ?

It’s like.. a revolution, man.

More importantly, and i cannot emphasise this enough.. it sounds really cool.

The repetition.. the alliteration.. as a metaphor of course.

Shooting in New-York, do you still think of it as the city of dreams ?

It must be.. loneliness leads to more vivid dreams.

Your signature is the “Total Naked” , was it a challenge to shoot a lookbook where clothes are the focus point? 

My signature is actually a ‘P’ that looks like a wave with a sunset.. informed by Miro’s early work.

What is your favorite part of the human body ?

The soul. Definitely the soul.

Or.. maybe a perfect tanned ass.. in a neon g-string.

To you, who is the Maison Kitsuné woman ?

She’s a little fox. Sexy and clever. Sometimes too clever for her own good.

One day she is in the library.. reading psychology.. the next day she’s in the back alley, savaging about for some rats.

Could you describe in a few words this first experience with Maison Kitsuné  ?

Fun. Organised chaos. Just the way I like it..

What is the thought process of a photographer to prepare an ambiant shoot like this, with a story ?

Sure sure.. I have a couple of quirky rituals.. First thing is to, like, walk.. just walk the streets. Barefoot. Sometimes for 40 days.

Next I manifest visual references in my third eye.. in this case, NY, aka ‘the big apple’.. I visualise an apple.. Also, I only ate apples the week before the shoot. Metaphysical.. to physical. Or shooting Sky Ferreira.. I imagine.. the.. sky. In her case, the night sky. Or let’s take Heather Boo.. I spend several hours at the one-hour photo lab looking through the ‘boo-boo’ bin.. searching for fragments of discarded memory.

Did you already worked with Sky Ferreira, Jonny Pierce or Heather Boo ? 

Not in the physical sense, no.

You mostly shoot girls, was it a strange experiment having to shoot Jonny ?

Are you kidding me? It was fucking weird.. what a trip!

Which Maison Kitsuné spring/summer piece would you pick to wear right now? 

The sporty grey sweater with the white writing.. such a classic piece.

Makes me fee like an alcoholic french Rocky Balboa.

Your new book came out recently, could you talk a bit about it ? 

Yes. I can. The ban was lifted. The book is really just a collection of random snapshots of my friends on holiday around Cape Town, Los Angeles and the South of France.

You seem to shoot mostly blondes?

I guess. Let me reflect on that.. Here’s the thing.. I grew up in dusty South African town called Worcester. More specifically, I grew up on the grounds of the school for the deaf where my father was a psychologist. So it was only natural that my first girl crush was on a deaf girl. And what do most deaf girls have in common (besides also wearing spectacles for some strange reason)? They are mostly blonde. Who knows why. Nowadays the deafness is somewhat optional, but I still fall in love with blondes. I’m nostalgic like that..

We follow you on Instagram, do you really take smartphone pictures or are you cheating ?

Well I follow you in real life, and you are cheating with your diet.

I saw you have a piece of yummy cake at that hip new Kitsune Cafe..

Photos credits: Henrik Purienne