Note: mild nudity. Kate Moss is photographed at her house in Gloucestershire, England for Self Service, December 2010. Images via Fashionising.com.

Juergen Teller lenses Kate Moss as her real deal self, with no help from photoshop. Clearly this shoot was ‘in the can’ before the Kate Moss photoshopped to a sex doll images of her appeared in the recent Valisere lingerie campaign.

The Juergen Teller photoshoot isn’t a dramatic form of Kate revenge … we assume. People ask if we really want to look at this version of Kate Moss! Thank heavens, they say, for effective retouching.

It appears to me that Kate Moss isn’t wearing any makeup, that’s she’s just being Kate. The woman is a hard-living rebel; no doubt about it. I love her Gloucestershire moxie that says ‘So be it, darlings. I dare to go without makeup or reimaging and just be me.’

Britain is on tough times and so is America. Personally, I love the authenticity of the photoshoot and its lack of lacquer. Next up after this Kate piece is a return to Alabama and America’s slow design movement. I was headed there anyway, because Alabama Chanin always comes up first in our Women sitewide index, an incomplete and massive undertaking across our websites.

These images of Kate Moss remind me that behind all the Photoshop images of American luxury and high society, there’s a lot of talented, unemployed artists and craftspeople in our country. Britain values craftsmanship moreso than America.

There’s a reason why Toronto-native, Parisian-based photographer Benjamin Kanarek and I get along. In our digital-technology world of bullet-point, pulsating micro-moments, Benjamin Kanarek rows his production boat in the manner of a Manet painting.

His video of making “Symphony on Ice”, featuring model Luana Tiefke wearing Chanel in the September 2010 issue of Vogue Brazil, is a great example of Benjamin Kanarek in action. See Benjamin’s blog.

Don’t misunderstand me. It would be my kiss of fashion death to him, to describe Kanarek as refreshingly calming, superbly creative, artistically competent and — god forbid — having an accesible personality, in the frenetic world of fashion photography.

I’m sure Benjamin kicks serious butt as needed, but he’s just so not a diva, so not-self-absorbed, and so not full of himself, in spite of his considerable talent.

Fashion Shoot 101

You know the fashion video drill. Hair flying, music pulsating, everyone is beautiful and talented beyond belief. This business is not for mere mortals, but for God’s chosen people.

And excuse me, can you please get the whole video scene down to 90 seconds, because Internet viewers have no interest in understanding the genuine substance of working on a fashion shoot. Just give them the glossies, damn it. Readers don’t care about process; Powerpoint it.

Au contraire.