Spike Jonze’s Exclusive Pics of Björk at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont Inspire Exhibition, Digital Magazine

A not-so-new collaboration between Spike Jonze and Björk is getting new life.

WeTransfer and Arroz & Fun are teaming up to present The Day I Met Björk, a set of exclusive images taken by the indie auteur of the Icelandic pop icon in the summer of 1995 at Los Angeles’ famed Chateau Marmont. Curated by Humberto Leon, the 25 never-before-seen images will be unveiled at a Feb. 15 opening at Leon’s L.A. restaurant and gallery space, Arroz & Fun.

In addition, the series will be available as a free downloadable zine from WeTransfer. It will also feature never-before-seen contact sheets and a conversation between Jonze and Leon. Limited physical copies will be made available at the exhibition. 

The series of images were taken at the Chateau Marmont in the days before Jonze jumped behind another camera to direct Björk’s music video “It’s Oh So Quiet.” As the story goes, only six images were published from the series. However, Leon, the co-founder of fashion brand Opening Ceremony and former co-creative director of the French fashion house Kenzo, discovered thousands of photos while digging through Jonze’s personal archive to help him get organized.

“When I came across these photos at Spike’s, I knew, as a longtime fan of both he and Björk, that they were special and needed to be seen,” Leon recalled in a statement. “I remember being a college kid and seeing the originals in Detour, they were instantly iconic to me. It’s an honor to help bring these photos out from the archive for fans everywhere to see for the first time.”

Added Holly Fraser, vp of content at WeTransfer: “The fact that we now get to revisit that meeting and share never-before-seen images with people around the world is so exciting. Working with curator Humberto Leon on this project has been a joy and we hope that the photography in this zine will inspire a whole new generation in the same way that it did for many of us the first time around.”

WePresent, WeTransfer’s arts platform, has collaborated with artists like Marina Abramović, Solange Knowles, Russell Tovey, FKA twigs and David Sedaris. One such commission, The Long Goodbye by actor Riz Ahmed and director Aneil Karia, won an Oscar for best live-action short.