Met Gala photographer reveals what really happens during prestigious event

Stephen Lovekin photographed the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna and Blake Lively at last year's event. He talks to The Independent about being on the front line of one of the biggest annual events in fashion and arts

Emma Watson at the 2016 Met Gala (Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock)

Last year, Stephen Lovekin took what he decided was his best picture of the night at the Met Gala: the notoriously introverted Kristen Stewart beaming with her arms outstretched on the red-carpeted steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“She was standing on the first platform and as she was going up the steps, she turned around and gave this great smile,” Lovekin told The Independent. “It was genuine and real, which was exciting because it’s particularly hard to get her to smile on the red carpet sometimes.”

The Met Gala is probably the biggest annual grouping of the world’s most famous faces from fashion, music and the arts. Lovekin, a photographer for Shutterstock, covered the event last year and is going along again this year with a team of veteran editorial photographers.

Lovekin's favourite picture he took from the 2016 Met Gala (Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock)

“The Met Gala is probably the most important event of the year. It takes a large number of people and a ton of planning to get everything together. We began discussing the gala several months ago, making sure that we had our best plan in action,” he says.

The coveted event is strictly invitation only and the guestlist is approved by the US Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour, who has chaired the event since 1995. Some years, certain celebrities are also co-hosts, for example Taylor Swift at last year’s Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology themed event (that’s another thing: the event is themed each year).

This year, Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams are co-hosting the event on 1 May (it always falls on the first Monday of May) and the theme pays homage to legendary fashion designer Rei Kawakubo – the founder of Commes des Garcons.

Lovekin believes the huge amount of interest the event generates owes partly to the combination of different people in the public eye it brings together.

“Where else could you catch a fashion designer cracking a joke with a Hollywood actress while a philanthropist stands nearby?... We are driven not only to the gowns, but also curiosity to see what celebrities are like when paired up with people from other industries.”

Lovekin says photographers are normally positioned on the red carpet for a few hours and the arrival of celebrities builds up so the biggest names arrive last; in 2016 it was Rihanna and Beyonce who were last to pose for cameras.

Beyonce at the 2016 Met Gala (Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock)

The event normally attracts hundreds of photographers and Shutterstock alone is sending a 40-strong team. In amongst a crowd of ambitious creatives all fighting for a brilliant shot, it can be a struggle to get noticed and photographers normally have a small window of five to 10 seconds to capture the perfect image. Lovekin uses a flashing light his son bought him which he attaches to his gear. At one event, Daniel Radcliffe came closer to find out about the light, the pair got chatting and he gave Lovekin the poses he needed.

So what does a man who professionally photographs some of the world’s most celebrated models in the most elegant outfits advise for taking the perfect picture of yourself? Lighting, it’s all about the lighting.

“On the red carpet, we work with some of the best lighting equipment which helps us (photographers) pick up every intricate detail of a celeb including their gown, makeup, hair, manicure, jewellery, and every last detail you can imagine. This makes for a beautiful shot that captures all of the hard work that went into the look.

“My advice, for any photo you are taking, is to make sure first that it is in a well-lit area (natural light is best), if that means moving toward a window or even outside, it’s worth it.”


 Paul Rudd catches up with Saoirse Ronan at the 2016 Met Gala 
 (Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock)

However, he also has another piece of worthy advice when it comes to flipping the camera round for a selfie: Lay off the “duck face” and switch up the poses so there are more options to choose from later.

Each year, a new roster of talent appears to have gained the coveted invite to the Gala. For example, last year Kylie Jenner debuted on the red carpet and Lovekin managed to photograph her. He says the big names remain the same each year but there is always the odd “model or socialite” who arrives early on in the night who he might not recognise.

“You have to remember that even if you haven’t seen them before, the Met Gala might be their big night to come out and stun in a gown everyone is talking about the next day. That’s part of the power of the Met Gala,” he says.

For example, who could forget Rihanna’s magnificently meme-worthy canary yellow gown from the 2015 event?