Young Star Exclusive: Catching up with Perou

Upon the invitation of Status magazine editor in chief Rosario Herrera, I found myself in a Filipino restaurant on an unassuming Friday night to meet world-renowned photographer and iconographer Perou. We dined over some good ol’ fashioned sisig, kare-kare, and sinigang after being previously acquainted through e-mail when I interviewed him for Status’s photo issue several months ago. The article ended up making last month’s cover, which is the reason why he was here in Manila for a talk and a photo exhibit at the Ayala Museum, organized by the independent lifestyle glossy.

Admittedly, I had some trepidation going into this interview. I was meeting my subject-once-written and star of a reality show I watched prodigiously. Perou was a judge on Make Me a Supermodel and had a penchant for dressing in outlandish apparel. He also brandished dagger critiques for the model contestants and seemed to have a perpetual bone to pick with them. That was the image of Perou I had conjured up: a man bitch. Surprisingly, he was everything but. He was animated, funny, and had a genuine interest in you as a human being — which is unnerving to a writer but comforting to say the least.

In the course of the interview, I had forgotten the fact that he’s an international big shot who has photographed the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Justin Timberlake — that is until he shared anecdotes of his shoots with Courtney Love and Ryan Gosling. In this Young Star exclusive, get to know this photographer, once shy, once parochial, and once butler to a viscount who has now come out of his shell, become a renaissance man, and turned into one of today’s most exciting and respected photographers.

YOUNG STAR: Tell us something about yourself.

PEROU: I told you before I was learning to (do the) Morris dance the last time, right?

You did.

Well, I got a clown outfit as a Christmas present. I’m going to start rocking the clown look around London — full white face, polka-dot flare trousers.

You’ve always had a penchant for dressing in extremes.

I always wanted to be different, and I always wanted to be recognized as different from everybody else who was the same, and behaved the same. It was a driving force for me to be recognized as an individual and not be part of the mainstream.

Kind of like how you were on Make Me a Supermodel.

When I did that show, I wore a different outfit every day. One day I had a Queen Latifah ‘80s black asymmetrical hat and MC Hammer pants, and a black and gold tracksuit and sunglasses. I looked at myself in the green room before I walked onto that stage and I was like, “I look so stupid. I look utterly ridiculous. Okay, let’s do this.”

You used to be shy?

I was painfully shy. When I first started taking photographs, I was super shy, I wouldn’t even speak to the people I was photographing. Photography has forced me into being able to go into a studio with someone like Al Gore and go, “Right, let’s do this shoot. Tell me about (President Bill Clinton’s intern) Monica Lewinsky. Let’s talk about cigar sex. How does that work?”

What made you get into photography?

It was an accident. I didn’t plan to be a photographer. I wanted to be a missionary or a long-distance truck driver — I used to love this 1970s film called Convoy. Also, I thought that I was going to spread the word of Jesus in Africa. But I had a revelation and realized Christianity wasn’t really for me. And driving trucks around England all day wasn’t going to be anything like being in Convoy. So I took up photography.

Who has been the most interesting personality you’ve photographed?

Courtney Love. It starts with me in Ventura, hours outside of LA, waiting for Courtney Love to meet me and tell me where we can do the shoot. And she had like a hundred acupuncture needles in her. She was shaking. It ends in Wynona Ryder’s house to celebrate her birthday, a couple of weeks before she got caught for shoplifting.

And Ryan Gosling?

I think he was hitting on my assistant.

Do you ever get intimidated shooting high-profile personalities?

I used to get terrible nerves but now I sleep like baby. I wake up with ideas but I don’t wake up worried about what’s going to happen. Whatever happens, happens.

Who are your inspirations as a photographer?

Duane Michals. Christopher Griffith. I’m influenced by every photographer, every bit of music I hear. But I try not to pay attention too much to other photographers because I find it unhealthy. There are photographers who value themselves in comparison to others. I shoot for myself.

What are you looking forward to seeing in Manila?

Well, to be honest, I’m excited to see where 10 percent of the people hang out. But I also want to see what the other 90 percent are doing. I’m more interested in the not-so-pedestrian things. Even people standing on the street with a big orange glove is interesting to me.

Finally, what’s next for you?

Chicken farming.