Scott Schuman, Sartorialist: Meet the Man Behind the Camera..

The New York Times' Kristen Joy Watts recently wrote an article on Scott Schuman, the photographer behind the popular fashion blog The Sartorialist (which can be found here). She credits his eye for fashion, detail, and framing, and particularly his ability to see style where others cannot, featuring the common worker - house painters, for example - and the eclectic as well as the rich and obviously well-dressed. She hails his power in the industry, noting that "in five years, Mr. Schuman’s singular vision has transformed him from someone who documents style to someone who also influences it."

Schuman himself is influenced by a number of acclaimed photographers, including French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue, Italian photographer Paolo Roversi, American Bruce Weber, and finally, Bill Cunningham of the New York Times (and Harvard drop-out, just saying).

Schuman is criticized, however, for his increasing focus on fashion editors and socialites. His work, some claim, has drifted from the fashion of the streets to an elitist fashion of those in the industry. Many also argue that his photographs primarily feature the thin and the European, excluding a healthy mix of body shapes, weights, and cultures.

This will be discussed in further detail tomorrow as it's 3AM but I would like to note that as a private blogger, Mr. Schuman really has no obligation to public standards and perspectives on what constitutes health and equality. He is a European based photographer and so of course he shoots Europeans, of whom many are white; he is also a fashion photographer, and the fashion world by matter of fact does not exactly work to promote obesity or "healthy" weights. These criticisms are idealistically true, but realistically a little off-kilter. Regardless, here are some photographs of the above mentioned photographic influences on Mr. Schuman, the Sartorialist:

 

Bruce Weber