On a recent Instagram TV post* I described how I obtained much style inspiration from books of portraits and street-stye images of well-dressed men. One of my favourite books is photographer Jamie Ferguson's This Guy. Published late last year, it contains his excellent photographs of modern men's style around the world. Many of his subjects I've met and it's fascinating to see how well he has captured their looks and personalities.
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| Image Jamie Ferguson from This Guy |
I asked Jamie to tell us more about his book and his work:
GF: Jamie, please introduce yourself and tell me how you got into photography
JF: My name is Jamie Ferguson and I've been in the menswear industry for the last 10 years and working as a photographer for the last 5. I got into photography through the emerging street style blogs and websites back in the mid 2000's. People like Scott Schuman, and Tommy Ton. Seeing their imagery of men who I thought dressed well made me want to shoot - figure out how they were doing what they did. Slowly I started experimenting bit by bit, buying my first camera and 50mm lens. Luckily because I was already working in the industry I had a bit of access to the clothes and the people that I wanted to shoot and started to timidly do so. And I've just built it up from there.
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| Image Jamie Ferguson |
GF: Your book gives a wonderful overview of modern men's style. Which came first for you - an interest in style or photography?
JF: Probably an interest in style. The guys that I was seeing on those sites, the older gentlemen from Italy and Japan, wearing tailoring that was beautifully worn in to the point of being a second skin, I'd never seen anything like that before. Before that the only real access I had would've been magazines but they never really covered anything that 'real'. It was always more high fashion shoots that I couldn't relate to and clothes that I would never wear.
GF: I notice that many of you subjects are smiling and you always seem to capture a bit of their personalities. How do you decide how to portray a subject?
JF: I don't think I ever really enter a shoot with a pre-determined idea of how I want the portrait to turn out. With personal work, like the book, I really enjoy spending time with the subject and getting to know them better, chatting about a bunch of stuff, which I find puts the subject at ease a little more. They're not fully aware the camera is there or that we're shooting because we're just having a conversation about a shared interest. It takes a while to warm up. And I love telling jokes and trying to capture a bit of levity with that person. I find images of people laughing or smiling or just something different from the usual 'serious' shots much more interesting, personally.
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| Image Jamie Ferguson |
GF: You attempt a definition of style - what, to you, makes a man stylish?
JF: Haha! In no way would I say that the book or my work is my attempt to 'define' style. The guys I chose for the book I certainly think have great style but style is so fluid and subjective. What I think is stylish someone else could disagree and that's fine. Clothes should be fun. People should feel like they can still experiment with different styles and not worry too much about getting it 'right' all the time. We're all going to fail sometimes at that. I still do. All the time. But every now and then you'll ty something you thought wouldn't work for you and it becomes a much loved garment.
What I look for, especially when shooting something like street style, is someone who is comfortable in their clothes, an understanding of fit and proportions, a playfulness with those proportions as well as colour and pattern. It's hard to compute all those things at once and a lot of the time it's gut feeling.
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| Image Jamie Ferguson |
GF: How would you describe your own style and is there anyone who particularly influences your personal and photography styles?
JF: My personal style is conservatively eclectic. By that I mean I like trying a lot of different styles but tend to stick to the tried and true within them. At the minute I've been quite comfortable with a kind of preppy-Ivy-French-bohemian thing. On the flip side I'm still very drawn to soft Italian tailoring but dressing that down as much as I can. I really enjoy that playing around with high and low and trying to dress a causal thing up or a formal thing down. Of course it doesn't always work but that's half the fun!
In terms of photography I love the work of Peggy Sirota, Annie Leibovitz, William Eggleston, Matthieu Venot, and Glen Allsop. To name a few.
GF: Are you planning any more books?
JF: There's always something floating around up there. Of course I'd love to do another This Guy at some point. The 2 years putting that together was some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Who knows?
This Guy by Jamie Ferguson published by Hardie Grant UK
*My favourite style books - @greyfoxblog on Instagram
