Yahoo Lifestyle The Sartorialist Talks Photography, Style And 'It' Girls
Photo by Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist.
How did your interest in street style photography begin?
I was never trained in photography, so I think it really started when I had kids. I loved doing photography as a hobby, and I loved the history of photography, but I never found anything I really wanted to shoot until I had them.
From there I started going up to people and asking to take their photograph, and that’s how I learnt how to take a good picture. I have a fashion background, so I know what looks good, and once I combined that with photography, I found a niche. What I was really interested in were people that had some sort of style story.
In your opinion, what’s the most stylish city in the world and why?
Oh, Sydney Australia of course (laughs). Well, that’s the thing that keeps me travelling and going to new places. I used to say New York, and of course I still admire the street style there, but I’m also really enamoured with the fashion in Spain, particularly in Madrid. I find the style there really undefined; it’s always surprising.
I can instantly tell if a girl is from New York, or Paris, or Sydney. The New York girl is tough looking with an edge, the French girl is quirky and polished, and the Sydney girl is happy and pretty.
But the Spanish? I can’t quite put my finger on their style just yet. And that’s what makes them so interesting.
The really hard part is going to the places where style doesn’t exist. I went to Cincinnati recently for instance, and I thought I was going to die. I was there for a day and it felt like a week.
You’re known as the godfather of street style – with so many people deeming themselves photographers today and with the invention of apps such as Instagram, how do you see this medium evolving?
Do people say I’m the godfather because I’m old? (laughs).
I think it’s like cooking – it all comes down to each individual author. The whole thing could be revolutionised tomorrow by someone coming in and seeing things in a new way.
But I guess I have a particular point of view that nobody else has been able to capture.
In terms of photography, the future is still totally open, because it’s such a big world out there and everybody is different. People need to take more chances. Like why aren’t there more blogs out there that mix sports and fashion for instance?
To give you an example, I shot a Muslim girl wearing a hajib and a Nike jacket when I was here in Australia last time. She emailed me recently saying she’s going to take part in these extensive marathons while wearing full Muslim dress mixed with Nike items. It’s just amazing. She’s mixing her traditional dress with modern culture. If somebody did a blog like that I think it would be amazing!
I hope as things go forward and there’s more blogs and people using Instagram, that things will get more personal. At the same time, I don’t need to see five pictures of your dog, or a thousand selfies. There’s a way of doing it – some people get it, and some people don’t.
You interviewed renowned photographer Steve McCurry earlier this year – what was that like? And who are some of your other favourite photographers?
It was really cool! I was a little nervous because while I’ve always loved fashion photography, I’ve also always loved street photography like Steve’s, or Brassai’s, or August Sander’s. I love anyone that lived in a specific time and tried to capture it.
With Steve McCurry, he was really one of those photographers where I just went, ‘wow, he gets to just walk around by himself and get lost and take photos.’
I can pinpoint that exact moment I sat in my living room in Chelsea, New York, looking at his pictures and thinking, ‘now that would be a pretty cool life’.
And now I kinda do the same thing, but I’ve always got people following me around or things I have to cross off the list. I have to go through those things though, so I can have days like yesterday, where I just wandered through the backstreets of Bali and the markets. By the afternoon I was emailing my assistant going, ‘I really miss just walking around, and not going to fashion shows, and just absorbing life.’
I love that process of spotting a good photo and then being like, ‘oh that’s a great subject.’ I spotted a young girl with a beautiful face yesterday at the Bali markets for example, and when I saw her, she was just standing so naturally, but I couldn’t get the shot quick enough.
So I was thinking, ‘where should I go to get this? Should I try and put her over there?’
I love the whole process you have to go through to get the perfect shot. It’s not like here, where you can just walk up to a 25 year-old girl and ask to take her photo. There’s cultural things you have to deal with; there’s the environment, there’s the lighting, and the question of, well, do I have to tip this person etc?
That’s what really keeps me going, the chance to mix that authenticity with the other fashion stuff. What I do is a little Steve McCurry, a little Bruce Webber, that combination between fashion and street.
You mentioned earlier that you’re often followed around – have you ever had the instance where you’re taking a photo and someone is there taking a photo of you at the same time?
I see a lot of pictures of myself on Instagram – I might be stopped on my bike looking at my phone or something! So yeah I get some of that definitely. Not so much in Bali, nobody knows who I am there (laughs). Though when I started instagramming from there, I got a lot of people saying, ‘I live in Bali and I’m your biggest fan, come and meet me. So it’s nice to know that my pictures are speaking to people right across the world.
That’s the nature of photography isn’t it? It’s a universal language.
Absolutely. I mean that’s one of the reasons I don’t write very much. I’m always shocked when I take a picture of some little corner of the earth and people will write going, ‘I know exactly where that is! I walk by that everyday.’ And it will be some obscure place. But I guess there’s people everywhere that look at the blog or Instagram and it’s really fascinating to see how that filters out.
How do you decide who to photograph? You mentioned spotting the little girl in the market in Bali and zeroing in on her – but what about when it comes to street style?
It’s almost the same thing - but with her, there was such a sincerity in her face and something so natural and real there that I thought would make a good photograph.
So sometimes it’s the clothes that attract me to take a photo, but that’s very rare. Posture is so important, and so is the persona they bring to the photo.
That’s why I had to sit and watch that girl for a while and just think, how do I shoot her? The way she relaxed her hands and the calmness of her face, and the gentleness of her body all combined to make a great photo.
I took another one I'm really proud of in a field in Bali of a little girl with her hands above her head. There wasn’t a lot of Westerners in that particular part of Bali, so I’m sure she was thinking, ‘why is this guy in my field with that giant camera?’
In contrast, I’m not a big fan of the Russian ‘it’ girl, because there’s such a façade and a lack of sincerity there that I just find uninteresting. That’s why when I’m one of the first to photograph an upcoming ‘it’ girl on the street I’m always sad when her profile gets larger, because she loses the natural appeal that was the reason I photographed her in the first place. Once she starts looking to be photographed, that’s when I’m onto the next one.
When I go to the shows now, I’m looking at the girls in the fifth or sixth rows, or backstage. I think there’s something more beautiful about them; they might not have much money, and they’re working with what they can, but they don’t have that ‘woe is me, I have to sit front row at another fashion show’ look on their faces.
So for me, it’s still about what kind of photo I can take with that person, and if the clothes help shape that, then that’s great.
To view more of Scott's work, click here.
