Autumn de Wilde was an aspiring photographer in L.A. when, in 2000, her friend asked her to direct a video for one of his songs.
She wasn’t sure if she was up to the task, but he insisted. That friend was Elliott Smith. “I was really moved that he believed in me,” de Wilde recalls. “I had started storytelling with my photography, I just didn’t quite realize it yet.” Her homespun visual for the Figure 8 track “Son of Sam”—along with that album’s now-iconic cover photo—kicked off her illustrious career.
Across the last 20 years, de Wilde has photographed covers for Beck, the White Stripes, Jenny Lewis, and Childish Gambino; directed videos for the Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, and Florence and the Machine; and taken portraits of
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