2threads.com

BY: SARAH JANE OWEN

WWW.LADYSARAHJANE.COM

Ivan Rodic aka The Facehunter was in our fair locale last week for a whirlwind visit in his continuous pursuit to snap the best style across the world.

Having previously worked as a copywriter in advertising, Ivan started The Facehunter blog four years ago in Paris as he took pictures of people on the French streets.

With no business model for the success he now finds himself surrounded by, Ivan started to develop a name in Paris as those photographed became more and more aware of his work and his wanderings.

In his words, The Facehunter has been totally ‘organic’ in its growth and he ‘never anticipated what it would be’ which is now almost 20,000 uniques visitors per month.

With no formal photography training and simply armed with a Canon G10, The Fachunter looks for individual and inspiring style across the world.

Calling nowhere home, but telling 2threads he feels ‘at home everywhere’ Ivan called Surry Hills home for 3 days which is where I had the chance to catch up with him for a Q&A on all things style.

Tell me about style, and about what attracts you to the people you photograph?

“Sometimes people look great wearing expensive clothes and sometimes people look good wearing American apparel, but it’s in the way they put it together. I rarely ask what brands someone is wearing.

Suburban kids living in poor areas in Paris like to try and carry a luxury brand and they all wear fake stuff, and then people with more money want to look more low key or possibly even trashy, all the codes are so mixed up together right now…

He could be homeless or he could be a billionaire, it doesn’t matter, if I like him I will take a picture…”

So is it more about the people or the clothes?

“It’s a combination. The starting point is the person but it definitely is the person and the way the person expresses themselves through their style…

It’s probably more about style than fashion though because style is an expression of someone and fashion is more like a form of art, and more about trends and more about following and is more brand related.

For some people calling them ‘fashion’ is almost an insult because it means they are a follower or they are so on trend…. For me, the worst cliché of fashion is someone wearing a tshirt with a logo of a high end brand…”

Do you closely watch the editorial in magazines?

No, rarely, very rarely.

Do you attend fashion weeks around the world?

“Yes, Paris, London, sometimes New York, Scandinavian and sometimes some South American.”

Do you focus more on the people that are there rather than the fashion that is on show?

“I try to do a little bit of both, my main mission is definitely the people, but I enjoy just as much the atmosphere.. I go to a few shows, since I’m there anyway and it’s interesting just to see and watch what’s up.

It’s not like I’m an editor and I’m going to sit front row and take notes on this new trend.. I will watch the show in a more relaxed way just to compare what I see on the street…”

When you see someone, and you eye them off across the street and you decide you want to take their photograph do you chase them down the street if they are walking away from you?

“It happens, yes.

I try to be discreet, I try to walk fast or to not be so visible if I have to run. I’m not ashamed, but it makes it less (with prompting from me…) less creepy, yes. (laughs)

I don’t have any specific bullshit to say to them, I try to be simple and straight to the point and honest. “Hi, would you mind if I take a picture of you” some people say yes and need no more explanation and others are more skeptical and want to ask more questions and want me to explain a bit more… Usually it’s fine and not such a big deal.”

Do you get rejected often?

“Almost everyday, it depends on the country and the place, some places people say yes to me for one or two weeks…. People are not always against me, but at that specific moment they are in a hurry or they are tired… and especially beautiful girls they are very self aware of themselves…

Some models especially are so precious and they think ‘oh where are my glasses or fix my hair first’ because they think that it might not be good for their image if I take a photo of them not looking amazing beautiful…

Some people take it so seriously! There was this one girl yesterday in Bondi and people know her in Australia as a model and she said yes but she was thinking she was the queen of the universe and that I was like the most stinky piece of shit in the whole world and she was thinking like

‘OK I’m with my boyfriend and we’re all very famous and cool and I don’t know who you are but OK, be quick….’

It’s not common, but it happens. Usually people who are very important they are more cool and relaxed and open. But it’s almost like these middle level celebrities put so much energy into pretending to be someone so important, but whatever.

People usually feel happy and very flattered…”

Which city do you think is the most stylish city in the world with the most stylishly dressed people?

“There are definitely hot spots in Europe, with Scandinavia and London being the main two.

Sweden is one of the most elegant and minimal yet very forward places, and London is the most interesting laboratory of fashion wear, where everything is experiential. London is also very powerful as well as its not just fashion it’s a package. Music and fashion go together, and often style goes with some sort of music scene…

London is definitely the hotspot, also Stockholm, Copenhangen and Reykjavik… I don’t think Paris is very inspiring and I only go to Paris during the fashion week when the international fashion set are there and it’s pretty good. But just on the street, it is very boring and is not what you would expect.

You would expect a beautiful timeless classic style, but it’s not even. It’s often totally boring and not graceful. It used to one of the capitals for fashion, but now its just that artificially because a lot of the big fashion brands are there so it’s by default.

In Paris though there is no proper scene of people who take pride in dressing up. In Paris if you are an artist or a musician or a writer you just dress in jeans and just a shirt because it’s not about impressing people by your style, you impress them through your work. It’s even the opposite actually. If you want to be a very cool person then you should not dress up in Paris or people will think you are superficial.

Even girls don’t wear heels, French girls wear a lot of flats and pants and they don’t really show their legs. They wear trousers, not so much skirts, not so much dresses, they dress very un-sexy. The mentality of the French girl would be not to be trying very often.

Here or in London its about skin, girls will dress up and go out and try to be sexy and make an effort and in Paris they will just wear a top and some converse and maybe some nice jeans.

What do you think about the style locally now that you’ve been to Melbourne as well as Sydney?

“I think there is not so much difference from what I’ve noticed and what people have told me as well.

In Sydney it’s definitely a bit more sexy and body wear and Melbourne is more like indie or more arty… The ultimate thing in Melbourne is to look cool but it’s not as important to look good, but in Sydney it’s more about looking good first and then cool…

I don’t know enough to be sure it’s so different but I haven’t been shocked by the difference either. There is just a little bit more of beauty involved here (Sydney)

Even the colours make a difference, you know, Melbourne is black and Sydney is colourful. Although in this area there are a lot of girls wearing black…

I mean everywhere is the world you get boring mainstream people, but if you are in the right areas like Surry Hills and Paddington then people are not cheesy or like porn stars!”

Can you tell me more about the project you are working on for Lacoste?

Sure, they asked me to photograph people wearing Lacoste, but regular people, not models in a set shoot, but like the people I usually photograph who have some kind of personal style.

So they asked me to shoot 100 people across the world wearing Lacoste as part of a blog they are doing for the year of France in Brazil because Lacoste is a French brand… So through the year they have lots of cultural events like concerts and exhibitions from French artists in Brazil and Lacoste is sponsoring that. So to promote that as well they have this blog where they document and follow it all, and at the same time they wanted to show the clothes on the blog without being too obviously corporate so they wanted to involve me to make it more smooth and acceptable for their audience.

It’s quite common that more and more brands are attracted by this ‘real’ touch and the same is for Burberry, and you can feel that this is now in the air.

For years marketing and advertising has been so intense and about oppressing people and brands are now having a hard time finding a new solution to make it more smooth and less aggressive…

I am also about to launch my book, it will be launching in just a few months in February during the fashion weeks in Paris and London.

It’s a published collection of photographs by a London based publisher. It’s about 300 photos with some comments and its very exciting because as much as I definitely love the online medium it’s nice to have something physical or tangible.

Aside from the book, I’m also doing an iPhone application and an online TV show and then the blog so there is a lot. I could probably do more with my blog but I’m not obsessed by perfection, and people know when they visit my blog that I am not a big corporation that I am just one person and it makes me more relatable to them.

People email me and offer to take pictures for my blog but it doesn’t interest me and you have to teach them your style and then you can’t be sure that you can trust their eye for things so I much prefer just to keep it as me.

You know every photo has a story and is special from the way you speak to them, and how you saw them, and finding the right spot to take their picture and I could write a guideline for this but it’s much more attractive to the audience for it to be just one person. People follow my work, but they follow me in a way too.

Is mainstream blogging the end of independant blogging? (thinking about the successes of many bloggers and them all sitting front row at fashion week)

“Yes and no… It’s normal in any scene that more people become more successful and start to collaborate and become established, but there will always be new comers as others move on and it’s a cycle. At least for a few years this may last.

I don’t think it s coup of blogging, we just need to be aware that blogging is more mainstream now. “