In the 1980s and ’90s, Winona Ryder was a dark-haired waif against a sea of preppy blondes. Pale, brooding and enigmatic, Ryder cut her teeth starring in alternative, macabre films like “Beetlejuice” (1988), “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) and “Girl, Interrupted” (1999).
Her grungy, gamine look made her a convincing on-screen outsider, but it was this singularity that captivated so many. Three decades on, the starlet’s off-beat allure has hardly waned. In fact, it might have grown.
Now, a new photography book by Robert Rich, former Vice President of public relations for fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ eponymous label, reveals a softer, more intimate side to the ’90s icon. “I will always be her Shnookie and she will always be my Shnookums,” Rich write in the introduction to “Winona,” a nod to the pair’s 20-year-long friendship and the intimacy of the images.
There’s a recurring backdrop in the many of the polaroid snaps: the crowded collage wall of Rich’s basement office at fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ headquarters on Mercer Street in Manhattan. Ryder is there again and again — in a purple plunging evening gown, in messy braids and a dance school tank top or in a pair of overalls and a woven sun hat.
Cameos by stars ranging Grace Jones to Kate Moss are strikingly human. They are pictured kissing Ryder on the cheek, or with arms flung around one another in a tight embrace. The office was their off-duty clubhouse, says Rich, who documented his friendship with Ryder consistently.
“I’ve always been a fan,” he told CNN in a video interview. “And I had just seen “Girl, Interrupted” when she came (into the Marc Jacobs store). That’s how we became friends. I just went up to her and started talking about it.”
As the decades went on, Polaroids made way for front-facing camera phones. The images in the book span across years and mediums, from selfies taken by Ryder and Rich to paparazzi shots of the pair walking through SoHo.
“I didn’t want to be in the book,” said Rich. “But Francesca Sorrenti (esteemed fashion photographer and creative director of the project) looked at the pictures with a fresh eye and said ‘There are a lot of books on people — let’s show the relationship.’”
There are no captions or timestamps for any of the images featured in “Winona,” mainly because Rich, by his own admission, failed to make detailed notes.
“I wish I had dated them,” he lamented. “But I would just take the Polaroids, put them in my back pocket and let them develop that way. I wasn’t sitting down (categorizing them). I just put them in shoe boxes under my desk, or hung them on the wall if there was a good one. It was very spontaneous.”
Her mark on pop culture was indelible — literally. Johnny Depp dedicated an infamous tattoo reading “Winona, Forever” to her during their whirlwind four-year relationship, a phrase that was quickly co-opted by fans around the world.
In 2016 Ryder returned to the acting world as Joyce Byers in the Netflix Sci-Fi drama “Stranger Things” and reprised her role as queen of 1980s gothicism. Now, she’s due to appear in a sequel of the career-making movie “Beetlejuice.” How does Rich feel about witnessing a Ryder revival? “I don’t think she ever disappeared. Not really.”
“Winona” is published by IDEA Books and available to purchase from November 30, 2023.