Taken from the spring 2023 issue of Dazed. You’ll be able to buy a replica of our latest issue here.

In his first issue as editor-in-chief, because the pandemic forced us all to lock our doors and concentrate on what felt most vital, Ibrahim Kamara wrote, “Youth culture is going on all all over the world, and all of its elements – fashion, music, style – are in conversation with one another. This issue is a foundation for a journey that has to proceed.”

As we looked deep inside ourselves and to our closest communities, a recent fluidity crept into photography. Suddenly, photographers felt more like journalists, writers or painters than solely image-makers, using their very own stories to inform expansive fashion narratives that really said something concerning the world and where it could be going. It meant that accounts of little-seen corners of the planet, and fresh faces and
perspectives, filled our feeds.

Since then, as Ibrahim predicted, the paths set in motion by Covid have continued to set recent agendas. With the assistance of social media and the hyperconnectivity of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, artists
have turn out to be less confined to, and defined by, one specific medium. Young, diverse, revolutionary, tech-smart and fuelled by the strength of their community, a recent school of cross-disciplinary photographers has come to define a shifting medium.

Creatives like Hugo Comte are taking a look at ways to work collaboratively with their online bubble, and harness the ability in numbers. As he explains below, Comte has invented a cryptocurrency to permit his followers to interact along with his work and blur photography along with his explorations within the metaverse. “The entire industry is being redefined by the people and never by the makers and deciders,” he tells me. “People feel stronger together, because they feel that they’ve an influence on what fashion produces, and that they are not any longer blind slaves of what the industry tells them.” Crossing disciplines in similarly daring ways, Lea Colombo uses sculpture and installation alongside her photographic practice to explore the contours and complexities of the human body.

From Thibaut Grevet celebrating the ability and scope of the natural world to Campbell Addy revolutionising diversity in casting and Rafael Pavarotti encouraging mindfulness and connectivity on set, we present the visionaries defining the unique pocket of history that we call now. Long live the ability of fashion photography, and the remarkable individuals practising its craft.

It’s not hyperbole to say that Campbell Addy has moved the needle for fashion photography since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2016. Born and raised in south London, Addy founded the casting agency and journal Nii Agency while studying at CSM, and has worked to platform distinctive and diverse recent faces ever since. “At times, an individual with a robust character dictates the ideas and stories that I recommend into the world,” he tells me. “A solid member can often change a story and an idea, because of their zeal, gumption or sometimes their sensitivity.” Over time, Addy has witnessed a sea-change in attitudes towards inclusivity. “There have been recent projects and gatherings that have made me step back and think, ‘Wow, we’re really in a recent age where everyone seems to be so humble, and nice, and there’s partly an absence of ego,” he says. “People from all walks of life are coming together to piece together the puzzle of fashion, which makes it a wholly more exciting narrative.” Humble, inspired and driven by a desire to see diversity celebrated and championed, Addy is considered one of the essential image-makers of our time.

Spurred by a fascination with movement, freneticism and the body, Thibaut Grevet is a French photographer and filmmaker bringing a fast-and-furious brush to fashion photography. Growing up in the countryside outside of Lyon, France, Grevet harboured a deep appreciation of nature and athleticism. “I at all times dreamt about being a professional athlete,” he says. “I’ve at all times been fascinated by human performance and I believe I’m attempting to translate that in my work. [Practising sport] makes me comfortable and offers me the adrenaline I want to get creative.” While Grevet may not made it as a pro-athlete just yet, he’s an authority in his field of photography. As for his tackle the creative process, nature is key: “It’s vital since it gives space to my anxious brain to think freely… It helps me to not think. If you don’t think, one of the best ideas come.” Let’s all get out within the green and provides our heads some space this 12 months – it’s clearly working for Grevet.

Having grown up within the Amazon rainforest, Rafael Pavarotti moved to London to refine his colour-rich,
oil painting-esque compositions. A champion of mindfulness, Pavarotti invites his solid and crew to face in
meditation before a shoot, connecting through a typical creativity. “We stop for a moment to integrate, connect, be grateful, feel the energy. Feel the silence. Be present within the now. I think there’s a really powerful force on this communion, this sacred space,” he says. “One in every of my great partners is Ib Kamara; we like to dream and once we create together it’s like a complete recent world emerges from inside.” As if frozen in time, his portraits of pop-culture icons from Rihanna to Beyoncé have a striking, statuesque quality, though he’s the primary to confess that his work “isn’t for everyone”, despite him placing an emphasis on sharing and co-creation. As for the results the pandemic had on his practice, he reflects, “I think that the transformations that Covid brought – especially regarding time and space, desires and purpose – were completely essential for me to be where I’m now.” For Pavarotti, going ‘inside’ has a strong effect on the magic that’s created on the surface.

Renell Medrano’s vibrant and vibrant portraits convey the vulnerability and emotion from the chums and strangers she encounters. Despite having names like Tyler, the Creator, Kendall Jenner and Jay-Z in her portfolio, it was on the streets of Recent York City that Medrano developed her creative excellence. Achieving a reference to her subjects that’s second-to-none, Medrano puts human emotion and the goodness of individuals on the centre of her work. Shooting today, she says, “looks like a community thing greater than anything… Being on set with all the several young photographers – it’s so beautiful to see since it
just looks like a community of like-minded individuals. It’s amazing what we can do and at such a young age, too; it gives hope to other kids.”

Hugo Comte is the photographic subversive blurring the lines between fashion, crypto and pop
culture. With a concentrate on community constructing and accessibility, Comte has used the ability of the web to
cultivate a body politic that acts as a catalyst for cultural cross-pollination. In his ongoing efforts to eviscerate the lines between creative media, the multi-hyphenate juggles quite a few projects directly, from clothing collections to high-end fashion photography and album cover shoots for pop icons like Dua Lipa. Using the metaverse and crypto to regulate how his work is interacted with, Comte grants his fans the power to earn $Nikita coin, rewarding them for engagement quite than money spending. When asked why he feels that cryptocurrency is significant for the longer term of fashion photography, Comte says, “Fashion photography has a mostly industrial purpose; it’s economy and culture-driven, meaning that our production is at all times in tight conversation with the way in which that individuals devour it. Crypto and Web3 normally will change the way in which people devour, due to this fact we are going to need to alter the way in which we communicate
ideas to people.”

Malick Bodian is the Senegalese model-turned-photographer making waves with clean-cut compositions and impeccable attention to detail. Shifting his gaze from in front of the lens to behind it, Bodian has a sensitivity to his subjects that only a model could possess. “I don’t see myself as only a model or only a photographer – doing each completes me,” he says. “I want my modelling experience to grasp
models and, because I’m taking pictures, I understand photographers higher. It’s a win-win.” Lensing natural beauties for brands like Bottega Veneta, Wales Bonner and Jil Sander, his work is influenced by Nineteen Seventies west African studio portraiture, within the vein of a modern-day Jean-Paul Goude. As for the culture of latest fashion photography, Bodian asserts that “there are a number of recent young photographers which have fresh eyes. There are recent ideas and it’s exciting to be a part of them.”

As the primary woman of color to photograph a Vogue cover in 2020, Nadine Ijewere is smashing
conventional beauty standards along with her powerful portraiture of girls. A native Londoner with Jamaican
and Nigerian heritage, Ijewere explores themes of identity and variety through her work, making space for underrepresented natural beauties. “Diversity is finally being celebrated and recognised; it’s vital to me and my work definitely reflects this,” she says. Taking a break from photography through the pandemic, Ijewere was in a position to reflect on her creative process. “I feel closer to my work… I’m grateful to be able where I can decelerate.” Trust is paramount to her practice, working with teams that contribute ideas and construct on briefs and references the photographer has set. “When working with others, knowing the possibilities is an enormous a part of my process. I’m very aware of the strengths of the people I work with and like to explore what’s possible.” Her work stands testament to the ways wherein truly collaborative processes can lead to the best standard of fashion image-making.

Clara Belleville’s work crystallises the purity of youth. Her photos are vulnerable and emotional, capturing a spirit of freedom in her subjects. “I believe emotion is the essence of art,” she says. “It’s the movement that pushes artists to create and it’s what they hope to convey. Fashion photography shouldn’t be exempt from that.” Citing Nan Goldin and Larry Clark as key influences, her raw imagery of young maturity powerfully conveys the essence of adolescence. “As I see it, fashion photography oscillates between two extremes. On the one hand, it’s depicting life because it is, with the will of catching a bigger range of realities. Alternatively, it creates abstract worlds, inventing surreal spaces of creation where anything is feasible. And in between, there are countless representations. My work leans more on the realistic side, creating small stories you may relate to.” Keeping it strictly real, Belleville’s power lies in her ability to speak these vulnerable representations of the human condition.

With a background in international economics, Justin French is something of an anomaly within the fashion industry. Indeed, his powerful, socially aware photography is the final thing you would possibly expect from an economist. But for French, the transition from spreadsheets to photoshoots felt seamless. “Working as an analyst primarily for marketing required a novel creativity to assist brands tailor ads by their respective
audiences and mediums,” he says. “From a client-facing perspective, my background has been extremely useful for me within the photo economy.” Celebrating and bolstering the representation of LGBTQ+ and PoC
voices in his work, the Chicago-born photographer now works to create Afrofuturistic masterpieces of iconic standards. When quizzed on the core traits and goals of his deeply contemporary fashion photography, French cites “a way of wonderment, poetry, melancholy, dread, warmth or regardless of the headspace the photographer/team were in while creating. Fashion photography needs to be transformative and an engine for discourse. I think my work encompasses a few of these things. There may be love present in my work.”

Growing up in Malibu and rubbing shoulders with a few of fashion’s most glamorous icons, it’s in Brent
McKeever’s DNA to create sexy, cinematic masterpieces. You’ll be able to feel the warmth and the haughtiness of the
famous beach in his sticky cover art for PinkPantheress’ debut mixtape and in Rihanna’s 2021 vinyl rereleases of her back catalogue. But while McKeever’s images often feel fantastical and otherworldly, there’s an autobiographical seed in all of his work, he insists. “I don’t prefer to portray something I haven’t felt or lived – which makes working commercially for me either unbelievable or horrible.” And while he credits Steven Meisel and Craig McDean for his or her lasting influence, his strongest early memory of photography was seeing family photos taken by his dad. “There is an authoritative male gaze in all of them and I can feel my dad behind the camera. I would like you to feel me behind the image in your phone.” Ultimately, surmises McKeever, photography is an act of self-discovery. “I grew up believing or no less than behaving like something I used to be not, but those questions of who I’m and why I feel this fashion are what drives me to select up (or put down) the camera.”

“From young I used to be the one to fiddle at school”, says south London-based photographer
Gabriel Moses. “I’ve at all times enjoyed making people laugh. So long as I’ve done this, I’ve taken pride in making an audience feel something or presenting them with familiar details of our world through my eyes.” A champion of authenticity and individualism, Moses’ work radiates a liveliness and crystalline honesty
that’s apparent in his up-close-and-personal portraits of Pharrell, the shape-shifting music videos he directs for Little Simz and his truly one-of-a-kind, sci-fi-tinged images of Pa Salieu for the duvet of Dazed.
“[The pandemic] was a blessing within the sense that there was stillness in my life – it allowed me the luxurious of with the ability to just think,” he says. “Multiple ideas were birthed in that time frame.” His ultimate goals, he says, are to make people feel good and force them to maintain exploring their wildest imaginations.

Will Scarborough isn’t going anywhere, but he sees the role of the photographer drastically evolving in the approaching years. “There are infinite abstract ways to create images now. For instance, with creative directors shooting their very own campaigns, it is absolutely about redefining the role of the teams involved moving forward.” Indeed, a surreal and humorous energy bubbles beneath the surface of Scarborough’s vital fashion imagery, as if he’s continually fiddling with recent ideas, smudging the barriers between him and his subjects, and rejecting any hint of editorial ego. His 80s-inflected Working Girl homage, shot with Ib Kamara last 12 months for Dazed, was fitted with the proper tagline for his approach: “Wait, What?” “It’s hard to say what [defines] contemporary fashion photography as almost anything goes and all of us have different parameters of taste,” he says, before reflecting on the ways the medium has embraced sociopolitical messaging in recent times. For Scarborough, his work exists on the tramlines of fantasy and social commentary. “I believe there’s responsibility towards the work now in terms of its wider social context, which is sweet. People actually need to feel represented by these images greater than ever before, whereas previously it was all about deceit and the unattainable fantasy.”

Lea Colombo is the photographer-turned-artist exploring the ability of the feminised body. Born in Cape Town, Colombo has captured the likes of Billie Eilish and Cardi B, though recent years have seen her step away from more industrial fashion photography to adopt a more spiritual, multifaceted approach to art-making, creating vivid paintings, sculptures, prints and installation pieces. Her multi-hyphenate approach to creativity, she says, “relates an open and intuitive process, a mindset that enables creativity to flow with no boundaries.” A powerhouse who likes to have fun joy and gentleness, Lea brings a human touch to any subject she works with. As for her fascination with every contour of the human body, well, “there’s a lot to explore,” she remarks. “[Photography] allows us infinite opportunities to achieve this.”