PORtFOLIO
New York Fashion Week Style:
At Close Range
A photographer’s sidewalk view of style around the fashion shows.
Between shows on the last day of New York Fashion Week.Credit…Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times
Photographs and Text by Simbarashe Cha
Produced by Elizabeth Bristow
I remember the first time I walked up the steps to New York Fashion Week at Lincoln Center a decade ago, armed with my camera and a new zoom lens I purchased just for this occasion. I had no expectations except for the fact that a friend of mine thought it would be a nice boost to my growing love for collecting portraits of strangers on the streets.
It was intimidating: The people hanging out around the shows were better dressed than anyone I had stopped on the street in weeks prior, and there was an energy of cool in the air, as if I had just stepped into a party that was out of my league.
I spent the day at a distance from just about everyone, and when I returned home that evening to look at my photos, a feeling of disappointment overcame me. Thinking the zoom lens would allow me to get in close ended up being a crutch for shyness.
I decided I would return with a small plastic 35 mm lens. It was cheap, but it was the lens I had been taking portraits with and it would require me to engage with people for the photo.
When I arrived the next day, the timing was incredible. As I passed the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, a show must have just let out, and I found myself swimming up a current of people scurrying in the opposite direction. It was all happening too fast, I had no choice but to pick up my camera and start.
As I sat later that evening and loaded the photos onto my computer, to my delight there was the singer Solange Knowles, the very first portrait I landed in focus.
About three years ago, I abandoned shooting traditional street style in favor of returning to the kind of street photography that excited me when I first started out: wider perspectives, greater depth of field, but, most importantly, as little posing as possible.
It is a discipline I picked up from browsing party photos on the internet. Pictures where people pose for the camera are almost always the least interesting ones. But I do love a proper portrait. It will always be the foundation of my work.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14
Credit…Keeping warm outside the Coach and Maryam Nassir Zadeh shows.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15
Credit…Guests at Peter Do.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16
Hair adornments, from beads to shells and a crown.Credit…Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times
