Photographing Street Fashion with Marcy Swingle

Photographing Street Fashion with Marcy Swingle

Fashion photography doesn’t just happen in the studio or on the catwalk. A whole cottage industry of street fashion photography has emerged as people look for more “authentic” looks. Marcy Swingle started her professional career in the New York start-up scene (Daily Candy and Shecky’s Media) before transitioning into a street fashion photographer for publications like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair. She runs the food and fashion blog Gastro Chic.

You initially started your career as a writer. How did you fall into photography?

I actually think the two things are quite similar – they are just different mediums for telling a story. I studied photography for a semester in college but stopped afterwards. Darkroom fees were too expensive, and yes, I graduated from college when we were still shooting film. In 2007, I was between writing gigs and went to the Bryant Park tents during New York Fashion Week with a digital point-and-shoot camera. I just wanted to capture what people were wearing. At that time it was still a relatively new concept to post street style photographs online. I wanted to do what Bill Cunningham does, but on a website instead of in the newspaper.

Street fashion is a very specific niche – perhaps first reaching the mainstream through people like The Sartorialist. What led you to pursue this vs covering fashion shows?

Fashion shows can be beautiful and inspiring, but I was always more interested in fashion in real life. How do people take the runway looks and interpret them with their own personal style? How do the clothes look in motion on the street? Plus, the two disciplines are actually quite different. Shooting in the pit makes me claustrophobic!

Gigi Hadid at Coachella 2015

Gigi Hadid at Coachella 2015

What makes a good street fashion photographer? How much do you need to know about individual designers and celebrities? What are the photographic challenges?

Great style is like pornography: hard to define, but you know it when you see it. If you don’t have that sense of what is worth shooting, who has truly great style – no matter who the subject is or what label she is wearing – there is no use getting into this thing. Everything else can be learned.

As for the photographic challenges, you name it, it happens! We are out on the street or in the Tuileries, sometimes with hundreds of tourists in the background, in the pouring rain or searing heat. You can’t control the light or the weather. You have to be able to work in all conditions. And no, don’t be that guy who brings a reflector disc or ring flash.

Sasha Luss at Chanel FW2015

Sasha Luss at Chanel FW2015

You travel to the major fashion weeks. How do you scout out a location?

During fashion week, street style photographers have almost zero choice as to location. We are generally outside every major fashion show no matter where it takes place, whether the location is a beautiful open plaza or a narrow congested street. You just have to work with what you’re given.

Gucci-Men's-Look,-Outside-the-Resort-Show-2016

You also traveled to Coachella this year. What are you looking for in this type of environment?

As an East Coaster, I was blown away by the surroundings. I had never been to the desert before, and it’s absolutely stunning. I think I gravitated towards subjects who represented this natural, free spirited American style.

How do you approach people to take their photos? How often are they receptive to having their photo taken? Any horror stories?

Let us remember our first amendment rights here – you are allowed to take photos of anyone in a public space in the U.S., anywhere they do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. So you don’t necessarily have to ask your subject, especially outside a fashion show where there are signs on the wall everywhere telling everyone they’ll probably in the background of the next episode of Real Housewives of New York. If you want to pose someone, however, the general rule is to be polite. Also, because I want to maintain a good relationship with my subjects, many of whom I see season after season, year after year, I try to read their expressions to see how open they are to being photographed at that particular moment. Maybe they’re having a really bad day.

I’ve only had one person get angry at me for taking her photo, and that was a chic Parisian lady who just happened to be walking by the Balmain show. She wasn’t there for the show and was furious I took her photo. The laws are different in France.

Gilda-Ambrosio-at-Creatures-of-the-Wind-SS2016---detail

Is there a street fashion photography mafia? (i.e. do you all know each other?)

Those of us who have been doing this for years all know each other, but I wouldn’t call it a street fashion mafia. We’re friendly, but we’re also competitors. As I believe Mickey Boardman once said, fashion is like high school, but you never graduate.

Your work has been published in the NYT, the Post, the WSJ, etc. How did you catch the eye of those photo editors?

Well, thank you PhotoShelter! Some editors found my work because they know my website Gastro Chic (food and fashion) but others found me through PhotoShelter. The search engine optimization has been great, and it helps to have very specific keywords attached to your photos.

What sort of gear are you using?

I shoot street style with a Nikon D4 and a 85mm f/1.4 lens. That lens in particular is pretty standard issue for street style. They should hand them out with your fashion week press pass. Ironically there is a movement back to point and shoot now, however, with some of my friends using the Sony RX100 IV. It’s so small that it’s not easily recognizable as a professional camera, which can be good when you’re on the street.

boating-hat-and-shorts-jazz-age-lawn-party

I’ve gotta ask. Do you know Bill Cunningham?

I do know Bill Cunningham, but I’m not sure if he knows me! We are on a bonjour basis outside the Paris fashion shows. As one old guard photographer said to him outside one of shows, where there were dozens and dozens of street style photographers running around and generally getting in the way, “This is all your fault.”

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This article was written by

Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder of PhotoShelter.

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