A World of My Own: my fashion editorial for LIAR magazine’s debut issue

fashioneditorial

Apr 11

This fashion story came out of a conversation with Christine Be, the creative director behind LIAR — a new magazine, sharp and ambitious from the jump. She’d seen some of the early FUCKING NEW YORK work I did, and asked if I wanted to do a fashion story that shared some of that DNA. Same city, same intensity, but a different register: less public heat, more private orbit.

We imagined a woman who doesn’t walk through New York so much as haunt it. Elegant, composed, and entirely apart, like the city’s moving around her in a blur. The title came easy: A World of My Own.

Clara Settje was the first and only choice. I’d been hoping to work with her for years. She brings a quiet command that doesn’t need explaining. My lighting setup — hard reflectors, full sun — isn’t easy on anyone, least of all a redhead. But Clara never flinched. The stillness in these frames? That’s her.

We shot it all on location in New York: sidewalks, Brutalism, reflections upon reflections. Clara moved between open air and glass enclosures, from bare concrete to half-seen glimpses behind windows. Just her, the city, and the spaces between them. I didn’t know it at the time, but a lot of what I’d explore in later shoots — the tension between stillness and exposure, between isolation and spectacle — started here.

LIAR’s premiere issue is out now. If you’re in New York, you’ll know where to find it.