Artist and photographer Simon Procter’s distinctive approach to runway photography — shooting every conceivable angle before putting each photo together into one spectacular composite image — led to a close relationship with Chanel, and in particular, the brand's late creative director, Karl Lagerfeld.

His 2019 book, "Lagerfeld: The Chanel Shows," compiles 10 years of runway photography, displaying Procter's style and the creative immensity of Lagerfeld's shows.

"In the context of big fashion shows, they're the best, the biggest and the most ambitious," Procter said in a phone interview. "It's like installation art — they're wondrous.”
"People are very interested in what I do because it's Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld," he continued. "But the fact that they are Chanel shows, the association with that —I can't complain, that's wonderful. I think within that I've created my own thing."

Procter's "own thing" often granted him almost unrivaled access to Lagerfeld's vision. In his book, he describes securing a position within the photographer's podium at Chanel's Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2010 show, only for Lagerfeld himself to send for him and install him backstage.

There, he photographed the models as they prepared for, walked onto and departed from the runway, blending shots together to recreate the clamorous energy of the occasion.

"It's very hard to take a bad photo backstage at a fashion show, with all the beautiful people and the best makeup artists in the world," Procter conceded. "But I'm going there to make a piece of my work."

Procter's creative approach enabled him to elevate the shows he photographed beyond the constraints of reality, whether adding real NASA footage to photos of a Chanel-branded rocket or melding together countless shots of model Lily-Rose Depp and Lagerfeld into an impossible hall of mirrors.

"I had limited time, and sometimes you get put in a position with nothing to see," Procter told CNN. "The idea to go away and achieve something? That's the motivation as an artist."

Click through to see more from Proctor's "Lagerfeld: The Chanel Shows."