Before Autumn de Wilde met Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the sisters behind modern-classic line Rodarte, she had primarily been shooting music photography. Her work had graced the album covers of famed indie rock artists like Elliott Smith and Beck. The sisters found her at the right time, when de Wilde was seeking an opportunity outside of her field. It was a fortuitous collaboration for them, as well: They had brand-new designs, and needed photos to take with them to New York. In 2005, before anyone really knew what Rodarte was, de Wilde shot their first lookbook. Since then, she has worked with them on everything from backstage fashion week photography to campaigns to behind-the-scenes documentation of their costuming for
Black Swan (2010), as well as their directorial debut,
Woodshock (2017). Their visuals together are modern yet dreamy, nostalgic and ironic, and distinctly now. “I have always tried to make everything feel like a scene from a movie,” de Wilde
said in 2018. “That’s what I try to give artists, musicians, actors, designers, directors, writers, whoever I’m photographing: permission to theatricalise their life a bit.”