FROM THE STREETS TO FASHION AND THEN TOWARDS ELSKA

How did Elska begin? I get asked this question a lot and the answer is that it was a process. A little over a year ago I started a job as a flight attendant, both because I wanted to travel and because I wanted to do more street photography. I thought of perhaps going down a photojournalism route, but as I did more and more shoots on the streets, I realised that it was people that impassioned me most of all.

I would walk around a city, such as one of my favourites in the world, Buenos Aires, with my camera in hand. I’d snap away at anything or anyone that caught my eye. The man in the image below, shot from outside the door of a random newsagents in San Telmo, is an example of how I started to move away from street photography and photojournalism toward what we do in Elska. Looking at him, I can see a story, who he is, what he’s thinking, what he’s all about. The background is important to the story, but it’s all about him. Even though I don’t know anything about him, there is something evocative.

Eventually I started shooting particular guys rather than random ones on the street. At first it was of a fashion photography style, but there were elements of street photography that I missed, particularly the soulfulness and authenticity. I tried to combine aesthetics from fashion and editorial photography with the candid and documentary style of street photography. This is what I’m aiming for with Elska.

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