But since Snowdon is hyperallergic to the stuffy and the dull, and can smell pretention like a shark smells a corpuscle of blood in miles of open water, laughter is never far away. The image is constructed laboriously, finding the pose is a journey, but Snowdon creates an atmosphere of carnival when it suits his purpose. Sometimes the joke might be on the sitter as much as with them. Photographing the writer Bruce Chatwin, who was famously ambisexual, Snowdon called him Bruce when he was in front of the camera, but after he'd retreated around the corner to undress into another rugged outfit, to my astonishment, Snowdon would call out "Ruth?"—obviously adoring Bruce's manly, unwitting reply of, "Yah?" Risky, vintage Snowdon.