The New York Times-20080124-Before The Image Fades

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080124

Before The Image Fades

Full Text (386  words)

BY 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the line of fashionable people trying to get into the Danziger Projects gallery on West 26th Street to see a show by Scott Schuman, a photographer who takes pictures of fashionable people, had reached 10th Avenue and passed beneath a billboard that presumably was intended to tweak them on their behinds.

Fashion and art are a scrawny couple, read the billboard (a running gag on the neighborhood galleries by the French artist Patrick Mimran).

Harumph.

Tell that to the kid with the sunglasses, the buffalo plaid jacket and tight jeans tucked into white high-tops, or the pair of older men (in their 30s) in bespoke suits with coordinating tattersall patterns and flipped collars, flicking cigarettes with impatience at the crowd.

Since Danziger opened its show for Mr. Schuman, known for the on-the-street portraits of guests at runway shows that he posts for public commentary on a blog called The Sartorialist, skeptics have been in the minority.

Mr. Schuman, who quit a career running a fashion showroom to begin his life as The Sartorialist two years ago, has developed a cult following, with more than 50,000 visitors to his site on busy days. He also works for Style.com and writes a monthly page for GQ. Danziger had sold about a dozen prints by Wednesday, beginning at $1,200 -- a bargain by Chelsea standards.

I haven't sold anything for $1,200 in 10 years, said James Danziger, the gallery owner.

Mr. Schuman, who is 40, said he was not entirely surprised by the reception. His method of spontaneously capturing the style of a moment, and in relation to its setting, could be roughly thought of as the fashion world equivalent of August Sander's encyclopedic portraits of the German population in the early 20th century. Even in the homogenized world of fashion, there are types and variations of style from city to city, as Mr. Schuman's portraits depict.

I still see very much a difference when I am shooting in London, Paris or Milan, he said. We are still very unique creatures with very unique cultures that I am sure are crossing over a little more, but they are not as homogenized as you would think.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: FORK IN THE ROAD: The way they dress: in Paris, left, and Stockholm. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE SARTORIALIST/DANZIGER PROJECTS)