Mind of It's Own

A mischievous automobile takes center stage in Ryan McGinley’s latest short starring Chicago-born siren Karlie Kloss and showcasing the new Mercedes-Benz CLA.
Shooting among the vertiginous drops and lone oak trees of California’s Tejon Ranch, the director follows a Chloé-clad Kloss as she races along winding roads to indie band DIIV’s track “Doused”, before leaping out of the car to commune with a mysterious white horse. “I’ve worked with animals a lot in my art images and it’s challenging,” reveals New York-based McGinley, who has exhibited at museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim and Whitney museums in New York. “But they always bring something special.” As the independently minded vehicle speeds off, the ballet-trained model—a veteran of the runways of Givenchy and Calvin Klein and campaigns of Yves Saint Laurent and Marc Jacobs—is left to chase the coveted machine on foot. The video, for which Dazed & Confused and AnOther magazine founder Jefferson Hack served as Creative Director, will be screened during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin on January 17, and shows a new side to McGinley’s technical directing skills by employing complex aerial shots. “We were shooting in a stunt helicopter with an amazing team. I wanted them to do things they haven’t before: to go higher and get angles and speed they haven’t captured,” the director explains. “Looking through the camera while the helicopter is dodging in and out of canyons at top speed is not for the weak of stomach!”