your ensemble

This year saw me shooting street style at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia for the first time. Not having experienced an international fashion festival prior, I headed up to Sydney’s Carriageworks having no expectation except for great fashion and a buzz of creative energy. After two days of intense shooting, I wasn’t disappointed! Rubbing shoulders with the world’s best street style photographers, Adam Katz Sinding, Tommy Ton and Phil Oh, just to name a few, I learnt a thing or two about how they document street style and capture fashionable moments at this sartorial circus that is fashion week.

By pure coincidence, I was interviewed by Channel Seven’s Edwina Bartholomew from Sunrise during a live weather crossover. I was asked what I look out for when photographing street style. Not having thought about it before, what is that makes me want to release that single-lens reflex shutter? The first thing that comes to mind is individuality, someone who is not afraid to be different and is comfortable in their own skin. Unlike a mannequin on which clothes simply hang, the person should be owning it, not letting the clothes wear them. I look for subjects that know who they are and their personal style, effectively making the clothes an extension of themselves. There is no hesitation when you spot someone with that certain je ne sais qua. They can be easily separated from the rest of the fashion pack who merely sport trends without conviction.

This experience has only strengthened my desire to shoot street style in Milan and Paris during fashion month in September. With a bit of luck, I will hopefully be bringing you European street style from my perspective. Here are some of my favourite shots from Sydney…

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia 2014