Nine young fashion photographers upsetting the status quo

It’s widely accepted that London’s multiculturalism is part of what makes the city’s creative scene so rich – the same is true for its fashion schools, as evidenced by these London College of Fashion BA Fashion Photography students. With roots in the Far East, Latin America and Scandinavia, this crop of talented young photographers allow their various cultural heritages to feed into their work. Nirja Ram for example, explores the gender power relations in Indian society, along with the strength of female deities in Hinduism.

These students undertook these projects with the future in mind, pushing the medium of fashion photography – an ethos drilled into them by course director Itai Doron. “They are encouraged to question existing notions about fashion image making and explore the medium’s future platforms,” explains Doron. “This group of young photographers were particularly successful in reflecting on their own cultural heritage and mashing-up unexpected photographic genres and visual references to create and offer fresh perspectives on the future of fashion photography.”

Check out the work of these burgeoning fashion talents below:

ERIC PHILLIPS: CONSTRUCTING HYPER-MASCULINITY

“Gay men often turn to fashion as a way of constructing a hyper-masculine image and reassure others of their gender,” says Eric Phillips. And that’s what he decided to focus on for his project titled Bofe – which is Brazilian slang for a masculine/attractive man. This zine explores how “masculine-encoded items of clothing are often used by gay men in the formation of a sexually-charged gay fashion aesthetic.”

@ericphillips

DEN NIWA: DEPICTING ASIAN YOUTH CULTURE

“Unknown Pleasures is a visual diary that captures my own reality, my journey, the imperfections in my photography, and the truth as I see it,” say Den Niwa. In this book, Niwa has captured models (all of whom are friends and acquaintances) in cities as disparate as Berlin, London, Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, in an attempt to depict the reality of Asian youth culture.

@den.niwa

NIRJA RAM: EXPLORING GENDER POWER DYNAMICS IN INDIA

Nirja Ram is behind an ongoing photographic project “Shakti”, which explores the power dynamics between men and women in India. As Ram explains, “Shakti, which means power, is a term more frequently used to refer to the energy and strength of female deities in Hinduism. This body of work focuses primarily on the themes of masculinity, male dominance and power through the representation of fashion in modern day India.”

@nirja_ram

ALEX ROD: PHOTOGRAPHING MEXICO’S ‘CHAVROS’

Adults of the Future is a fashion documentary book and film project that focuses on Mexican youth culture. Rod found his models via “cyber-casting”, as he put it, selecting them not just for their looks but for the way they “embrace their age and culture”. “The first volume of the series ‘Chavos’ was shot in Mexico City where I am originally from,” he explains. “The title was taken from a Mexican slang word for young people.”

@triangularview

AYA BRACE: AN ODE TO FINLAND’S CREATIVE MINDS

For Aya Brace, the inspiration behind her work lies in the architecture of 1950s Finland, along with Finnish movie director Aki Kaurismäki and 1990s fashion photographers such as Anders Edström. “I wanted to find out more about the designers of my generation and to photograph my own take on this phenomena,” Brace explaining more about her work. “How could I add to it and also question the function, future and audience for these garments by shooting them in my hometown Helsinki.” 

@aya.brace

KENNETH LAM: GROWING UP

Kenneth Lam’s project stemmed from an interest in humanity’s collective experience of “growing up” – something he identifies, we all go through. He decided to use photography to explore his own experience, growing up above a Chinese restaurant. “I decided to create fashion editorials which express life growing up in that kind of place. At the same time I interviewed chefs to find out about their childhoods, and their stories of migrating or growing up in rural Hong Kong.”

@kenlams

LUSHA ALIC: EXPLORING THE HUMAN BODY

Lusha Alic’s photographic project, titled, ‘ALIENAE’, is an exploration of the human body – specifically its “strange and unfamiliar qualities”. Focusing on women’s bodies and female sexuality, Alic’s images (in her own words) “create kind of a morbid feel of emptiness and absence in contrast with the beauty of the female body form.”

@lushaalic

THU THUY PHAM: CAPTURING THE VIETNAMESE DIASPORA

Thu Thuy Pham is another photographer who decided to focusing her attention on a theme specific to her cultural heritage. She’s put together a 72-page book that “represents the strong and dignified Vietnamese women who migrated to Germany in search of opportunity or away from persecution.” Mostly featuring German architecture, these images capture something of these women’s struggle to integrate into a new culture.

@thu_thuy_pham

SHAWN PAUL TAN: LOOKING AT THE CONSTRUCT OF MEMORY

Shawn Paul Tan’s project ‘Sanguine’ investigates how we perceive and experience memory, dealing with “trauma, re-self-discovery, voyeurism, self-medication and mind alteration”. The website, book and two films mix fashion and art, as well as digital and analogue equipment. 

@shawnpaultan