How ‘Fashion Blogging’ is changing the face of fashion photography (Part III)

Hanneli Mustaparta                     www.hanneli.com/

Norwegian street style titan Hanneli Mustaparta is a model-turned-photographer, blogger and stylist. It's easy to dismiss her as yet another all-singing, all-dancing, multi-tasking model, but for her eponymous blog, which American Vogue reports "sees more traffic than a SoHo sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon", each post prompting hundreds of rapturous comments.

Hanneli began modelling at seventeen, but after realising that she was "never going to be a supermodel," she turned the lens on herself. She's nonchalant about the switch: "I started out taking pictures and posting them on my blog to practise reviewing my own work. In between modelling jobs, I styled editorials, music videos, and worked as a wardrobe consultant. Then out of the blue I gained this big following, which grew and grew."

  

Some of her photographs that have been published in fashion magazines.

Now based in New York, she clearly relishes the control that comes with occupying both sides of the camera: "As a model you are there to be a piece in someone's creative puzzle. Once in a while it's okay to be part of the ideas, bouncing ideas around on set, but mostly you don't. Since I couldn't do much while at work, I would always soak in the shoot every step of the way, asking questions if I saw fit.

She considers herself to be "a photographer slash fashion blogger slash writer and contributor to Vogue.com. Lots of slashes!" Everything on her blog she shoots herself, both street style shots of worthy subjects and photographs of herself. Does she use a self-timer? "I set up the shot and then have an assistant who presses the button."

Some photographs from her blog.

For her a  perfect street style shot would be: “A sunny afternoon in New York with a thin scattering of clouds, a person that is wearing something because they really love it and not because it's a trend. An outfit that's been put together in a unique way with confidence and charm.”

In her interview with the Telegraph (March 2012) she says “I have always found photography magical, and became more taken with it whilst modelling. I got my first proper SLR camera four years ago and started shooting and learning about the different settings. I'm self-taught and emailed photographers I knew if I had questions I couldn't figure out from the manual or online. I took a brief summer class for a month three years back, only to realise the class was at beginners' level. So I didn't learn much, but had fun developing my own images in the dark room. I use a Nikon D700.”

Despite officially 'retiring' in 2008, she still does a bit of modelling on the side - Massimo Dutti have signed her up as the face of their spring/summer 2012 campaign, and she was immortalised on a series of T-shirts by Zara in 2011 - but it's her extra-curricular skills that have made her a real hit. Calvin Klein snapped her up as their social media co-ordinator over fashion week in February of this year (she manned the CK twitter account and launched their tumblr) and she presented American Vogue 's coverage of their shopping event, Fashion's Night Out, on CBS in 2010.

Conclusion

I will conclude by talking about the short 10 minute documentary “Take My Picture” by Garage Magazine which talks about how much has changed in the past 20 years in the fashion industry. With the integration of bloggers and the boom of photographers, fashion has morphed into this ever growing industry. The film examines the phenomenon from the perspectives of bloggers and street style icons as well as fashion magazine editors and other industry professionals. The Garage Magazine sat down with one of the world’s most influential fashion journalists, Tim Blanks. He says in the film: “Things are changing. Street style photography is getting more and more critical when is comes to good photographers, such as the Sartorialists or Tommy Tons.”

The Fashion industry used to be distinctly more insular than it is today, an elitism that was encouraged, a desired lifestyle laced with campness. This elitism and campness got reflected in the fashion photographs too, which has been the same for ages, until now with the fashion photo blogs finally being accepted by the mainstream even if grudgingly. The idealized image of desire, which once was the over-groomed body beautiful, now seems to be the soul searching teenager on her gap year, like the runway favourite Julia Nobis. Where before the must-have invite was for the red carpet, the most influential and photographed forum today seems to be the street or music festival. Could it be said, then, that drama has left the stage for a generation of people on the streets? Yes seems to be the answer seeing the present scenario, and I feel it’s headed the right way.