This grid of 48 black and white photographs comprises the entirety of the four rolls of film that Andrew Catlin shot of a young Sinéad O’Connor in 1988 following the release of her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra. O’Connor was just 21 years old and the session was one of the first photoshoots she had ever done.
“The photographs were taken in natural light at the kitchen table of my flat in Maida Vale, with Sinéad facing the window and me sitting with my back to it,” Catlin recalls. “It was the first time we met, although it turned out that she had just moved into a flat a few floors above me. We chatted over a cup of tea and continued chatting throughout the shoot. There was minimal instruction from me.”
O’Connor had already had a hit with her second single, Mandinka, but was yet to experience the dizzying global fame that followed the release of Nothing Compares 2 U in 1990. As Catlin puts it, “she was utterly uninterested in posing or behaving like a pop star is meant to behave in front of the camera. She had this luminous presence that was not only to do with her beauty, but her character and her strength of will. That’s what I was hoping to capture.” When Catlin printed his four rolls of film on a huge sheet of contact paper, he realised that every shot was a gem. “It was extraordinary, because even though there are some outtakes, including some slightly blurry portraits, every single one had a real sense of who she was. In the context of an editorial photo shoot, it is exceptional for someone to be so natural, neither nervous nor self-conscious.”
Terence Pepper, the then curator of photography at London’s National Portrait Gallery, immediately bought two of the portraits, which astonished Catlin. “Back then, they tended to wait until someone was established, but he saw something in them.”
Though he has exhibited the grid in various exhibitions over the years, it was only while making his book, Sinéad O’Connor – 48, that Catlin decided to print it in the chronological order in which the photos were taken. The result is a glimpse of a long, intimate and unselfconscious moment unfolding. “You can see the mood changing in a clearer way because it is an actual narrative of what happened, whereas the contact sheet is more of a photographic artefact.”
Though Catlin shot live photographs of O’Connor several times since, this extraordinary composite portrait is a record of the only time that they collaborated face-to-face. It speaks volumes about her spirit, her charm and her lack of artifice. Though it is heartbreaking, remember her this way.
Sinéad O’Connor – 48 by Andrew Catlin is available to purchase via his website (£29.50)
