{"id":833112,"date":"2026-05-30T21:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/833112\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T21:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:00:36","slug":"i-only-had-a-few-seconds-how-photographers-shot-of-kate-moss-went-down-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/833112\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I only had a few seconds\u2019: How photographer\u2019s shot of Kate Moss went down in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 In Snap<\/a>, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.<\/p>\n

When photographer Greg Brennan spotted Kate Moss in a fur coat at the bottom of a fire exit, cigarette in hand, he knew he\u2019d stumbled across something special. The year was 2007, and what he didn\u2019t realize is that one of the resulting photos \u2014 not even his favorite from the night \u2014 would become an emblem of the supermodel\u2019s \u201cparty era\u201d and the best-known<\/a> image of his near-four-decade career.<\/p>\n

The mid-aughts photo\u2019s enduring appeal is, partly, its mundanity. In that quiet, unguarded moment, Moss was just like any other 30-something having a night out on the town. And yet she is perhaps the only person who could appear that put-together while being ambushed in a stairwell. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a mixture between a ballerina and Janis Joplin,\u201d Brennan said in a video call from his home in London. \u201cIt\u2019s very rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss had developed a reputation for enjoying a night out during the \u201cheroin chic\u201d party girl era of the \u201990s, as the press did its best (or, perhaps, worst?) to document her every move.<\/p>\n

\"Celebrating<\/p>\n

Celebrating her 33rd birthday, Kate Moss was met by a media scrum at London’s Dorchester hotel. – Simon Mulvaney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Not all was as it seemed, though. For one thing, Brennan believes Moss was completely sober when he took the shot. \u201cI read all sorts of nonsense,\u201d added the now-53-year-old photographer, saying that his most famous image is also among the most misunderstood. \u201cI read that she tripped on her dress, that she fell down the stairs, that it was 4 a.m. \u2014 none of that was accurate. None.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s new book,<\/a> \u201cThe Big Shot,\u201d intends to set the record straight. It also details the combination of seasoned experience and blind luck that led the British photographer to the back door of a London theater on the model\u2019s 33rd birthday. (Moss\u2019 representatives, meanwhile, did not respond to CNN\u2019s request for her own version of events.)<\/p>\n

In 2007, Moss was at the height of her powers. It was the year Time magazine named her<\/a> as one of the 100 most influential people and Forbes listed her as the world\u2019s second highest-earning model<\/a> (behind only Gisele B\u00fcndchen). Wedding rumors swirled around her relationship with Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty. Against a backdrop of intense tabloid attention, Brennan was assigned to The Dorchester hotel in London to photograph the model\u2019s birthday party, which had become \u201ca kind of annual media event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Soon after Brennan\u2019s arrival, word spread among the waiting press that Moss and Doherty were still over a mile away at Donmar Warehouse, a theater in London\u2019s West End. He rushed across town only to find a mob of photographers and curious onlookers clogging the entrance.<\/p>\n

Then, a stroke of luck \u2014 or bad luck, as it seemed at the time: The batteries of Brennan\u2019s flash unit were nearly flat. Returning to his car a few streets away, he remembered the theater had a fire escape that doubled as a back door. (Here, experience paid off: In the late 1990s, he had captured Nicole Kidman leaving the building via the very same exit.)<\/p>\n

The photographer made a quick detour, \u201cjust to check,\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe was just sitting there on the stairs, smoking. I walked past the door, took one look and knew I had a few seconds, if that, to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poking his camera through the ajar door, Brennan fired off a series of 10 images. As the shutter clicked, he heard a vehicle pull up outside. It was only then that he realized what was happening: The couple had sent another car to the front entrance as a decoy while they snuck out the back. Moss and Doherty (who is just out of shot) took their leave \u2014 and, in a move Brennan admits was part politeness and part professional hustle, he even helped the supermodel open the car door, hastening their exit. After all, rival photographers were fast approaching, and he wanted the moment for himself.<\/p>\n

Brennan didn\u2019t bother returning to The Dorchester. He sent a selection of photos to his editors and went home confident that he had the night\u2019s best pictures. He did not, however, expect to find one of them splashed across almost every British tabloid the next day.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/p>\n

Photographer Greg Brennan’s favorite image from the encounter was actually taken a few moments later. “It’s more catwalk-y,” he said. – Greg Brennan<\/p>\n

It turned out Brennan had an effective monopoly: Moss had successfully dodged the cameras for much of the night, so newspapers instead published his stairwell image alongside tales of the celebrations she went on to enjoy. The Daily Mail printed the photo alongside reports of an \u201call-drinking, all-dancing\u201d 24-hour party. A caption suggested that it showed Moss taking a \u201cpartying pause\u201d rather than simply waiting for a ride. Other outlets printed the photo besides reports that Moss partied in a bathroom (The Daily Mirror) and had a \u201cbirthday row\u201d with Doherty (The Daily Star).<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s image had become debaucherous by association. But that was no surprise in a notoriously toxic period for British tabloids that subjected female stars (both homegrown and American, like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears) to invasions of privacy and public hounding.<\/p>\n

The media narrative around Moss was, at the time, one of excess. A 2005 drug scandal had cost her several high-profile modeling contracts amid investigations by British police. (The Daily Mail had declared on its cover that \u201cCocaine Kate\u2019s\u201d career was \u201cin ruins,\u201d though she was never charged and was named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards the next year.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why they do it,\u201d Brennan said of how his photo was presented. \u201cKate having a cigarette, sitting on the stairs, doesn\u2019t really sell newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Brennan, who has photographed Moss numerous times in the 2000s, disputed the \u201cparty Kate\u201d reputation that surrounded her. \u201cI\u2019ve never really seen her in that way,\u201d he said, adding of his famous photo: \u201cI just see one of my favorite models looking her absolute best at the peak of her career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, his favorite shot from the encounter isn\u2019t the one the world knows \u2014 he prefers one taken fractionally later in which Moss is on her feet, heading to the door. \u201cIt\u2019s more catwalk-y,\u201d Brennan said. He included it in his book, while accepting that photographers don\u2019t control which of their images capture the public imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that every good photographer, at some point in their career, should have one image that transcends all others,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I feel I\u2019ve achieved it with this one \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Big Shot: Photographs by Greg Brennan,<\/a>\u201d published by ACC Art Books, is available now.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 In Snap, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":833113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,341658,17669,7507,28910,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-833112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-greg-brennan","tag-kate-moss","tag-pete-doherty","tag-photographer","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116665544100031304","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}