#NYFW Feb. 2019
New York Fashion Week, for or all of the models, designers, photographers and creators, is like the All-Star Weekend of our industry. You gather a bunch of talent together in 1-city for 7 days and it has NYC feeling electric, but only if you know where to go.
My first experience with NYFW was back within my first 2 years of shooting and I thought it was a waste of time. I didn’t know how to get to the shows, I couldn’t find any galleries, I didn’t want to swarm around the garment district with a pack of other photographers while they chased down a single Street-Style Civilian and I didn’t know where the parties were; overall I didn’t enjoy it. But within the past year, as my runway show invites have made themselves more readily available, I’ve been sitting in positions that I realized I always should have been sitting.
Being in the press-pit this year at Pier59 Studios was confirmation enough that our talents are only as great as our belief in them. The same way a sprinter feels jitters before the starting gun goes off, is the same jitters I feel before moments like these and as soon as it starts, instinct kicks in and I do what I do, naturally. Its a surreal feeling - music blasting, an engaged audience watching and a focused model walking towards you as you capture her in stride.
The feeling of “I belong” is one that is taken for granted in art. More often than not, as artists we forget that we worked so hard to develop a talent that is acknowledgeable from those around us. We still see ourselves as students because there is always more to learn but as our knowledge of craft has risen, so has our skill.
The biggest lesson from this Fashion Week season, if you believe you belong then you belong and it’s your job to show everyone else why. From security to the producers and show runners, none of them stopped me from accessing any part of the shows because I moved as if I was supposed to be there.
