Ode to photographer Vicki King, one of the most talented photographers of our time.

Immediately King’s photography captured an essential beauty of this world. The beauty of nature and humanity with an otherworldly narrative. We are saddened to hear the recent loss of King in this world. At Champ we were honoured to work with her for the cover of Champ Issue 10, she shot a sublime image blending art, fashion and an ethereal world. That particular cover was also one of our most noticed, as we were one of the first cultural magazines to feature a black model on our cover. For us, we chose that particular model purely for her talent and King’s photography created a fitting elegance. Over the past decade or so, we had featured King in many of our Top Photographer’s lists and featured her work on other platforms we have been editorial directors for.

King was completely unique in the way she saw and captured this world’s true beauty. As versed by writer Charmaine Li for our commissioned story on King for Ambush Universe, Li detailed:

For Vicki King, photography can be a portal to the subtle beauty and mystery in the mundane. Through her lens, two wilting flowers drooping over the sides of a glass cup are charged with an air of tenderness, a summertime scene with a swimmer’s body refracted under water has a painterly softness, and iridescent scales on a fish resemble a magical landscape. After looking at King’s dreamy photographs, you emerge into daily life with a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity.

Originally from a small village in the Midlands and now based in London, King started taking photos when she was 20. “I was lucky, in the fact that my lack of knowledge when it came to technical skill in photography, at that point, ended up making something that I, at least, deemed interesting,” she tells us in an email interview. Her first subjects were people in her immediate surroundings – her sister, her friends.

Ultimately, what drew King to photography was the medium’s ability to “be used as a method of transforming what you have in front of you into something else from the offset”. After completing a degree in photography at the London College of Communication, she went on to build up an impressive portfolio, shooting for brands like Kenzo, Isabel Marant and Givenchy as well as publications such as Vogue, i-D and Allure.

With original depth and rigour, Vicki King’s timeless images will continue to inspire.

All images: Copyright © Vicki King