It’s hard to believe catwalk photographer Chris Moore has been shooting the world’s biggest fashion shows for over 60 years. From his early days assisting the likes of Cecil Beaton and Henry Moore at Vogue in the mid-1950s , to snapping from the side of the runway at Demna Gvasalia’s landscape-shifting Vetements and Balenciaga shows, Moore has seen analogue become digital, trends come and go, and models go from girl-next-door to ‘super’.

Chris] started in 1968, the year after Yves Saint Laurent opened Rive Gauche and the modern idea of the fashion show as we know it was born,” says Fury, who together with Moore went through millions of slides and a digitised archive to curate the images included in the book and the exhibition. “What [he] brought to it was a a sense of reportage but also a certain level of refinement, like an editorial photographer capturing a model standing still, yet the big difference, of course, is that Chris couldn’t tell them what to do.” To celebrate his legacy, the photographer has teamed up with AnOther’s editor Alexander Fury to create a book entitled Catwalking: Photographs by Chris Moore. Featuring iconic moments like John Galliano’s graduate collection, Alexander McQueen’s SS10 Plato’s Atlantis collection and the supermodel finale from Versace’s AW91 show, the book also includes interviews and essays by Fury that explore the famous photographer’s favourite moments. I’ve always loved Rei Kawakubo’s shows. They were always a challenge to photograph, they were never easy – there was always very difficult lighting. But Rei makes things interesting, she has always pushed forwards and done the unexpected” – Chris Moore Moore has never been adverse to a challenge. Having shot on film at the beginning of his career in the 1950s, the photographer used to make a dash for his hotel where he’d set up a darkroom in the bathroom (using the bath itself to develop his photos), before rushing to the printers with friend Suzy Menkes in an effort to meet newspaper deadlines. While you might not be familiar with the name Chris Moore, you will definitely know his work. The master of catwalk photography, Moore has been shooting on the runway since the 50s when he was working as a photo assistant at Vogue. From there he set up Catwalking in 1999, the first online archive of runway photography – even predating the original Style.com (RIP).In 1995, he began shooting on a digital camera and embraced the future of photography – as well as the future of fashion. “The very early 90s were a really exciting time,” he says. “Things were changing, technology was advancing, all these wonderful big productions were starting to happen, the supermodel was born. But the millennium was an amazing time, too. Things are always moving forward, and that’s always exciting.” While you might think after 60-plus years the photographer would be bored of it all, he still attends inspirational shows today like Martine Rose’s AW17 show held at Seven Sisters market. Although this book marks the end of Moore’s photography career (he told the Financial Times earlier this year he would be retiring) thanks to the book we can relive all his best moments as a final celebration.

As for the next generation of talent emerging onto the fashion landscape, Moore is enthusiastic. “At the exhibition, we’re going to have students from Northumbria show their work here on the opening night, and we had a wonderful sculptor who made a catwalk out of paper that people can walk on,” he explains. And when it comes to designers, there’s one that the photographer has his eye on. “ Martine Rose is very interesting,” he says. “I covered her first show, in that closed market in Tottenham, but I couldn’t go to the one on the street in Chalk Farm as I was up here working on Catwalking. But I loved that, I absolutely loved it. The next one? I’ll be there.” Though Moore can’t pin down a definitive favourite, there is one show that he looks forward to every season: “ Comme des Garçons,” he says. “I’ve always loved Rei Kawakubo’s shows, absolutely loved them. They were always a challenge to photograph, they were never easy – there was always very difficult lighting. But Rei makes it interesting, she has always pushed forwards and done the unexpected.”

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