Kate: Behind The Camera

Renowned Italian photographer Guido Harari snapped Kate Bush during the commercial peak of her career from 1982 to 1993. In an extract from his book The Kate Inside, he offers a fascinating glimpse into what it was like to work with the singer-songwriter and how the Hounds Of Love press images came about.

- Guido Harari

In spring 1985 I was the happy recipient of what I like to call “the magic phone call”. Kate would rather call than send a fax and at the time there was no Skype or WhatsApp. Would I be up for shooting her only official promo photos for the upcoming album, Hounds Of Love? My heart was pounding as I set out to meet Kate and discuss the shoot at [East] Wickham Farm, her house in Kent. At that point my career as a music photographer was really booming: I'd met and photographed Peter Gabriel and Joni Mitchell, and the year before, after famed rock impresario Bill Graham had hired me as official photographer for the Dylan/Santana tour, Dylan had picked my photos for the cover of his album Real Live. Around the same time, I was about to embark on a major tour with Italian superstar Claudio Baglioni, which would produce a blockbuster photo book. But this offer from Kate was too good to be true, and within days I flew to London.

Kate sent me a car to take me from the airport to Welling. During the journey, I stared out at these Flemish-looking skies filled with clouds, wondering what on earth to expect. First of all, her invitation to the house came as quite a surprise; she'd always guarded her privacy so fiercely. She had become increasingly studio bound, and even more so now that she had installed a 48-track studio at the 350-year-old farmhouse where she was raised and where her parents still lived.