MY DAY WITH AMY WINEHOUSE
In 2004, photographer Diane Patrice visited a flat in Camden to document ‘a day in the life’ of the singer-songwriter who died seven years ago, on July 23. Jennifer Sanin on the story behind the never-before-seen photos of the artist.
In 2004, photographer Diane Patrice visited a flat in Camden to document ‘a day in the life’ of the singer-songwriter who died seven years ago, on July 23. Jennifer Sanin on the story behind the never-before-seen photos of the artist.
It was a crisp February day in 2004 when budding young photographer Diane Patrice of Derby went out on one of her first big commissions.
Patrice had been booked to immortalise a promising talent for a teen magazine. Armed with a vintage 1973 Hasselblad, a 35mm Nikon and a Softbox light, she set off to the Camden flat to capture “a day in the life” of a then-21-year-old Amy Winehouse.
She was greeted at the door by a member of Winehouse’s entourage and taken upstairs to wait around with four other people, while her model prepared for the first series of photos.
It was a homely place, a “bit like a student flat, or a squat”, Patrice remembers. Vintage
Vogue posters adorned the walls over the mantelpiece clothes and records were casually strewn across the room. The singer was seemingly infatuated with shoes, of which she had around 40 pairs in baskets, in her closet, on the floor. There was a gaping, unapologetic hole in the ceiling.
“Her voice, her face and her features didn’t match. She sounded like a 20-stone checkout girl, she sounded huge. It was a lived-in voice. The whole package was very endearing ... a contradiction in herself,” Patrice says.
The young singer took her to the very unassuming little kitchen to make her a cup of tea: “I don’t normally wear my hair like this,” she said. She seemed to like having it that way.
They started the shoot onsite. Winehouse took Patrice to an adjacent room, where she was planning to set up a home music studio. Inside the photos, with sunlight pouring in through a large window, bathe the leopard-print clad musician in a cosy pink glow. A stack of vinyls under the sofa and a hefty pile of shoes draw the viewer into the intimacy of her home life.
The PR and makeup crew then whisked them away in “a little peoplecarrier”, to the second venue. All the locations and outfits were chosen by the singer herself, who did not, or would not, adhere to stylists’ guidelines.
They arrived at the local pool hall. Winehouse was an avid pool player. This was where she would indulge in her carefree years. The very same location appeared in her music video for the song Stronger Than Me.
“A lot of her later pictures were