If you remember the 90s, you weren’t there. Photographer Lorenzo Agius definitely was there. But what of his memories? Jake Denton spoke to him to find out…
A strung out twenty-something looks down the lens. Arms crossed. Sweat lashing off him. He is Mark Renton. Or more accurately, a young Ewan Mcgregor as Mark Renton, the anti-hero of Trainspotting, the 1996 film adaption of Irvine Welsh’s bestselling book.
But how do you market a low-budget movie about junkies in Scotland? Enter Lorenzo Agius.
A rookie photographer more versed in fashion than film. “Basically the film company, Polygram, let me do what I wanted to do.” He tells me on the phone from sunny Los Angeles. This is typical of the man, who, throughout our call, insists he was in the right place at the right time. Whether by accident or design he’s entirely correct. His black and white portraits of Trainspotting’s cast of relative unknowns helped launch the most subversive and successful film campaign of the ‘90s.
It’s hard to imagine. In a time before lockdowns, Brexit, Indyref, and Olly Murs, Britishness was something to aspire towards. Something even (and whisper it quietly) cool. Agius’ photographs are a snapshot of a time when Britain was a hit factory for the world’s most exciting artists: “We were on top,” the photographer recalls, “we made the best music, art, photography, fashion; we had Oasis, Blur, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and a new Prime Minister.”
A year after Trainspotting became the coolest British film since The Italian Job, Agius was approached by Vanity Fair to shoot the IT couple of the day, Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit. His photograph was used on the front cover of the magazine’s March 1997 issue with the headline ‘London Swings! Again!’ – drawing parallels with the Carnaby Street-driven youth culture explosion of the 1960s.
Agius’ shot of the Oasis frontman draped in a Union Jack duvet is the enduring image of that Cool Britannia thing; which, safe to say, wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
“Liam looked like an absolute fucking idiot with a nipple on his head, like a fucking baby bottle with his fucking missus in a Union Jack bed, topless” Noel Gallagher recalled in an interview for ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, Daniel Rachel’s retrospective book on the ‘90s.
Whatever you make of Cool Britannia, this was the first time Vanity Fair had ever given a photographer the front cover for their first shoot. “Like winning the World Cup in your first game.” Agius says. And what of our kid himself?
The shoot was meant to be on a Monday. Liam got busted for drugs on the Sunday night.
And it wasn’t just white male rock N’ rollers being celebrated. Agius shot counterculture icons, Goldie and Björk for the July 1996 cover of i-D magazine. The odd couple represented everything good in underground music: bold – uncompromising – outward looking. “Drum & Bass could have only happened in the UK,” the photographer says.
“Goldie’s a larger than life character. When you have someone that amazing, because they are who they are 100%, it makes my job easy.” And of Bjork: “She looked different. She sounded different. There’s been no one like her since.”
She looked different. She sounded different. There’s been no one like her since.
From Bjork to bubblegum pop – not an obvious trajectory, but that’s exactly what happened when a certain girl group came calling: ‘I was driving in my car and my agent phoned and said, “the Spice Girls want you to shoot their film poster.” At first, I said no, I thought their music was rubbish. My agent called me back and said, “they’ll pay you anything you want!”’
Of course, Spice World was not just another teenybopper tie-in – the film smashed box office expectations – rumours of plans for a sequel made tabloid headlines only last month. As Y2K fashion booms, Gen Z should look no further than Agius’ portrait of Mel B in a cheetah print crop top and trousers for style inspo.
With all the talk of the roaring ‘20s and a post-pandemic boom, is Britain about to experience a third pop culture renaissance? ‘It happened in the ‘60s, it happened in the ‘90s, we’re due for another one. When things get boring, there’s a group of young people who go, “this is rubbish, let’s do something different.”’’
