PHOTOGRAPHY ALL-STARS

BY: Jes Zurell

Fashion photography isn’t just about capturing photos of clothing. Photographers create incredible images that convey unique ideas of beauty, showcase incredible designs, and prove that fashion is truly an art. Here are our picks for today’s fashion photography all-stars.

Nadia Lee Cohen, Ingenue and Multi-Threat

Shot for legendary runway powerhouses including Gucci, Miu Miu, Valentino and Balenciaga before she hit 30. Experience in film and modeling, equally fluent in front of and behind every manner of camera. Don’t even get us started on her published photography books, which we may or may not have hugged to our chests while paging through them in awe.

Hugo Comte, Single-handedly Strengthening the Grip of 90s Minimalism

Bella Hadid, Sabrina Carpenter, Willow and Jayden Smith, and other fresh-wave icons look utterly devastating in the simplest shoots. A slouchy hoodie, a minimal black dress, a single coat of mascara — it doesn’t take much production for Comte to develop a specific morning-after feeling that’s as delicious as that first cup of coffee. With such a laid-bare style, every detail matters because it’s that much more visible. Comte’s work doesn’t show so much as a single loose thread.

Quil Harwood-Lemons, A Man Ahead of Time

Harwood-Lemons is a 23-year-old gay black man who is now the youngest photographer to shoot the cover of Vanity Fair, and the thrill of witnessing his aesthetic development gives us the kind of goosebumps that we thought could only rise from physical foreplay. This New Yorker brings a critical, questioning eye to the question of beauty, sculpting it through the most unexpected and gender-bending vision. We have never seen such tender strength in the men on the covers of GQ, nor such suited power in the women spread across Elle. In his own words, he “offers not just pictures, but portals,” and we truly could not agree more.

Tyrell Hampton, the Actual Party God

Strongly lit and highly contrasted, Hampton’s work has an unmistakable style that evokes memories of vintage Halston clothing and Rolling Stone stories from the 1970s. There’s a wildness to his work, a sooty-yet-high-gloss perspective that sparkles with the backstage energy of a rock concert. His work makes you feel like you’ve been invited to the most exclusive sex loft in the world.

Michael Bailey Gates, the One Who’ll Seduce Your Very Soul

This Rhode-Island-native-turned-NYC-transplant is one of the few photographers on our watchlist with a stunning body of black and white work. His dreamy nudes remind us of Mapplethorpe at times, echoing that same creamy, velvet touch that jumps to third base before the first date even starts. There’s an ease to his work, a specific kind of intensity that brings his work toward a place of high art and away from the feeling of commercialism. In no way does his work as a fashion photographer feel like it parallels to advertising, and we admire that about him. His work doesn’t shout — it whispers. And that speaks more loudly to us than any list of elite fashion clients could on its own.

Ryan McGinley, “the Most Important Photographer in America”

GQ once declared McGinley “the most important photographer in America,” and this highly-decorated master of the lens brings a spirit of youth and hedonism to his work that feels far more electrified than some expect to see in fashion, where a stony, cool gaze can dominate the tone of many shots. His latest show of fine art photography, “Night Shift NYC,” follows a series of nudes through back alleys, captured in motion in a way that makes us feel like we, too, are running through the streets on a high of exuberance and liberation with lightning in our veins.

Tyler Mitchell, the First Choice of Music Royalty

Mitchell was the first black photographer to shoot the cover of American Vogue, in 2018, capturing none other than the Queen Bey herself. His work has adorned galleries in London and New York in recent years, including the iconic Gagosian, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s a household name.