Photographs in aid of Blue: Art for the Ocean, curated by Jefferson Hack

Jefferson Hack is the founder and editorial director of Dazed Media, which includes the print and digital platforms AnOther, Dazed and Nowness. Hack’s titles not only dissect the zeitgeist across art, fashion, music and film, they dictate it. The Guardian newspaper called him ‘the coolest man in Britain’.

As part of Blue: Art for the Ocean — a collaboration between Christie’s and the ocean conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation — Hack has curated a selection of works by six photographers. Each is being offered until 15 October 2024 in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Online sale, with 100 per cent of the hammer price being donated to the organisation.

‘I wanted to give each photographer the freedom to recommend images to put forward. But we also had to understand what’s exciting for collectors, what’s a good representation of the work of that photographer, as well as how it’s interesting in terms of their canon,’ Hack says of his choices. ‘They’re all photographers that I’ve got a personal relationship with. These are artists that I love — I want people to find an emotional connection with their art, as well as the foundation’s mission.’

David Bailey, Blue Flower, 2008

‘I first met David Bailey when he took my picture, around the early 2000s. He said, “You’re as stiff as a board. You’re incredibly hard to photograph. Lighten up!”

‘I’ve been to his studio several times, and it’s interesting to see his non-photographic work and realise that he paints and sculpts, and makes these assemblages as well. That’s what’s interesting about this photograph; it speaks to his work as a painter and sculptor as much as his photography of actors and pop stars.

‘It’s a still-life photograph of flowers with this incredible cerulean blue, which has a sense of spirituality and divinity. It echoes the mission of Blue Marine Foundation, but it’s also a really beautiful, unusual print from Bailey.’

Rankin, Sam Smith, 2015

‘I met Rankin in 1990 at the London College of Printing. He was studying photography, and I was studying journalism. The first gig we ever did together was a project with Gilbert & George. I interviewed them and he took their picture. I was 18 and it was for our student magazine. Then we founded Dazed & Confused [now Dazed] together in around 1991. He’s a dear friend, ally and co-conspirator.

‘Rankin is best known as a portrait photographer, and I wanted to mix up the images and not have one tone to my selection, but instead reflect a range of points of view and emotions, so Rankin kindly donated this amazing portrait of the singer Sam Smith. It’s an iconic image from Rankin’s archive. It sort of looks like a picture of Elvis from the 1960s.’

Viviane Sassen, Anchor III, 2018

‘Viviane Sassen is Dutch but grew up in Kenya. She has been a contributor to AnOther and Dazed for decades now.

‘Her work straddles the worlds of fashion and fine art. This portrait is staged incredibly on a pink-sand beach in Africa. It’s got beautiful colours and is an expression of love and tenderness, but there’s a duality to the picture, too, with the tangled fishing net. It speaks quite poetically to the fragility of life, as well as the work of Blue Marine Foundation.’

Alex Prager, Renee, 2010

‘Alex Prager is an amazing multimedia artist, and this picture reminds me of the golden era of Hollywood — the 1950s, Technicolor and Hitchcock — which is very typical of her cinematic-style work.

‘She casts these characters — leading ladies — and puts them in dangerous, dramatic or exciting situations. The results have a sort of Cindy Sherman quality to them. Prager has been exhibiting globally at galleries and museums since 2007, so I wanted to choose something iconic from her body of work.’

Harley Weir, Venice, 2024

‘I’ve worked with Harley Weir on a lot of different projects, but one of my favourites was at 180 Studios in London, where she made a series of photograms by lying on photographic paper, then exposing her body onto it to create life-size portraits. We did a show of those and it was really good fun.

‘I wanted her to be part of this because she is another photographer who straddles fashion and fine art. This is a great example of her conceptual work.’

Jamie Hawkesworth, Water Island, 2024

‘Jamie and I did a brilliant project together the first time we met, when I interviewed Ai Weiwei in his studio in Shanghai, and Jamie flew over to take his portrait. This was when the artist was still living and working under house arrest, and Jamie did a brilliant series of portraits and shots of the studio. He has a such a specific eye for narrative and storytelling in his photography, and for capturing a sense of place and atmosphere.

‘He did an amazing book and exhibition, The British Isles, which he spent 13 years working on, and this print, Water Island, is from that series. I think it’s very beautiful — it captures all the elements in one picture, with a focus on the sea. It represents his photography really well, with a combination of landscape and fashion.’

Jefferson Hack’s curated selection of photography for Blue: Art for the Ocean is offered in Post-War and Contemporary Art Online until 15 October 2024. 100 per cent of the hammer price for all lots will be paid to Blue Marine Foundation, a UK registered charity (charity number 1137209)