Style Points is a weekly column on how fashion intersects with the rest of the world.
Johnny Cirillo noticed that everything was transparent in the spring 2020.
He hadn’t suddenly developed X-ray vision–but his street photography subjects had overwhelmingly begun opting for sheer looks, even as they covered their faces with masks. The thought process, he rationalizes, was, “I always wanted to do this, but I’m a little bit nervous. Now there’s a little bit of hidden identity here, I think I can get away with it.”
Cirillo is part of a new generation of Instagram-famous street-style photographers. They combine traditional fashion photography with street documentary traditions such as Vivian Maier and Garry Winogrand, offering slices of everyday life. Imagine a mashup of Humans of New York and The Sartorialist, and you’ll be close. Although they do shoot street style of the fashion week variety, their majority of work is not centered on glamorous show venues. Instead, they document everyday life in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Daisy Davidson’s photographs are of London areas like Camden, Portobello Road, and Camden.
Cirillo decided to start taking street-style photos the day after Bill Cunningham’s passing, inspired by the photographer’s populist approach. “It was just one of those things that you do because maybe it’ll make you feel something,” he says. He headed down Spring Street to take pictures in front the Mercer Hotel. “I went out for the day and did what I thought he would do, just to honor him. And it tumbled into this.” ThisWatching New York is an Instagram account. It now has nearly 700,000 followers. There is also a TikTok account which gives more information and interviews with the people he photographs. Darnell, a frequent subject, recently described a look that included a scarf, scarf, and small sunglasses. He said, “I’m giving to you Season 1 on a budget.” Keeping up with the Kardashians.”)
Cirillo has been able to see the moods and habits of a changing city during its journey through the various stages of the pandemic. He distinctly remembers the moment when the sweatsuits came off—and the LewksThey came back. “I feel like everybody was just brushing themselves off, saying, ‘Right, let’s get out and let’s do it big. The colors just exploded onto the scene. Highlighter yellow, pinks, blues, electric.” On the freezing winter day when we speak, he says of his latest photo session, “It was just a catwalk out there. It was fun.”
He prefers to show the uncurated, and at times, brand-mediated, personal style of professional influencers. Instead, he likes to feature ordinary people who thrift what they wear and mix it up creatively. “It’s not their job to do this,” he says. “They’re just doing it because it makes them happy.”
Davidson, who lives across the ocean, is taking her own candid portraits Londoners on @hystericsnaps. She was inspired by the vibrant looks in Japanese magazines like FRUITS STREET. There’s an archival, anthropological impulse at work there as well. “I want to document this fashion,” she says, “so that people can look back on it.” Mid-pandemic, she saw an explosion of like-minded groups linked by their participation in fashion subcultures. They’d meet online and decide to get together in person, all dressed up in their most outrageous looks. Despite being digital, it was a return of IRL culture that reminded her almost of MySpace fifteen-years ago.
I came across @nyc_looks when I realized that Liisa Jokinen had photographed me at Reykjavik Fashion Week a decade before for her blog HelLooks. When Jokinen and I reconnected over the phone, she explained that she’d moved from Finland to the U.S–first San Francisco, then New York–in the intervening time, and had been documenting the fashion of both cities on her account. “I guess it’s a surprise that I’m looking for,” she says. “A combination, an outfit, colors. It’s a combination of pieces of clothing that I have never seen before. I really don’t care if it’s a celebrity or an influencer. If they are, I don’t mind, but it’s definitely not something that I’m looking for actively.”
She says that she knew their backgrounds when she began photographing Helsinki’s stylish people back in 2005. [was]They were also influenced by the environment in which they bought their clothes. At the time, ecommerce was not the juggernaut it is now. The city had only a handful of stores so secondhand was the rule. Then, when H&M then entered the market, she could see an immediate effect on the way people dressed. These photos are her historical record. “I feel it’s super important to do that documentation work in a consistent way, because it’s such a big and important part of our visual culture and everyday life,” she says. “The longer I continue, the more important and meaningful and valuable my photos will be. Already, I look back at those 2005 photographs and think, “Some of these looks are still relevant now.” ”
Her work also serves as a way for her to build relationships. “I love getting to know the people that I photograph, especially people that I photographed in Helsinki. They are my friends now,” she says. “I’m super thankful for that.” In her new home base of New York, she says, “People are dressing more for other’s eyes. To attract attention or make certain impressions. It is a great way to make people feel good. Whereas in Finland, people dress more for themselves.”
Although their styles and subjects might be different, all three photographers enjoy the thrill of the chase. “When you go to Fashion Week,” says Cirillo, “it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. All the big fish are there and they want to take your photo. They’re also strutting down the street for your photos. So there is something exciting about it, but it’s also like—your favorite thing in the world, whatever that might be, if you had an endless amount of that, maybe it wouldn’t be your favorite thing in the world anymore.”
Adds Davidson: “If you see someone and you just feel like they’ve got a spark to them, they have a passion for what they’re wearing and you can feel that they’re enjoying what they’re wearing: that’s what I like to document. They don’t feel like they have to wear it just because it’s fashionable. Etwas. They’re just happy in it.”
Source: elle