NK: No, but I've felt its impact nevertheless. Magazines have cut back on budgets, but you know they wanted to anyway. It's just an excuse. But content doesn't seem to have changed. We did a story on Showstudio called Kill about how before 9/11 there was a lot of imagery related to random violence and culture clash. If you look at Chalayan's collection from that season, the dresses look like a bomb went off inside.

LC: Like a terrorist bomb?

NK: Yes, collections were all doing it, then they got super-sensitive after 9/11. But fashion photography is a global platform, like pop music was in the 60s, when you started getting protest songs about women's rights and the IRA. That's been happening in fashion photography over the last four years. People wouldn't comment on 9/11 either way, but I don't want to work in an industry with no political thought.

LC: No escapism for you?

NK: No. Fashion photography is enjoying an important limelight now. If given the chance, it can usher in change.