When Harper’s Bazaar asked the photographer Hiro to shoot a sandal in 1963, he almost turned them down, expecting that the magazine wanted a static portrait of a shoe made of satin and mock pearls.
Now 87 years old, Hiro recently recalled the assignment, which in the end he took on. He discussed the project with Harper’s editors. Then, in the New York studio that he shared with his mentor, Richard Avedon, Hiro took a bulky Deardorff camera and clambered up to a trap door in the building’s stairwell, so he could shoot from...