Oh London, how lovely are your transport closures? Well a 23£ taxi ride and a coffee later I was sitting with
Yvan the Face Hunter, one of my favorite bloggers and he was essentially interviewing himself:
"I was just in Poland," he said. Its rare when someone has more to say than I do so I was thrilled that he talked for 20 minutes about the situation in Warsaw without prompt. I have to admit that I was pleasantly caught off guard when he did not want to talk about what people were wearing there but how about they have reacted to Westernization; I was flat out shocked at how well versed and articulate he was about their socio-political and economic situation. He explained that the people he encountered were not very self confident and there was a lot of hostility to the kind of creativity he was searching for. He explained
football hooligans to me and the way in which they organize violence which startled him deeply. "They scream the word 'WAR' and run at each other," he said with fearful fascination. " After we talked about the communist architecture I had to ask some interview questions to cover my bases:
O: How did you get started?Y: In the beginning I had no conscious about it, it was a pocket camera, a present.
I took pictures at parties in Paris but there was no blog. Then I shared it and people sent it to each other, making a network. People blogged about it and after 2 months in May 2006 Cool Hunter did an article about the evolution of fashion media. I was Paris in the NY/Paris/Tokyo street style blogs. GQ called and I had my first big job.
O: What were you doing before?Y: Copy editing, writing about trends, cool hunting. After GQ I quit my other job. what is this for again?
O: Its for my blog, I just wanted to meet you honestly.Y: I see its was just a pretense then? (the he smiled with some of the most tackful charm i have seen in a while)
O: Ah yes, um, not stalking you fyi. So how do you feel about other bloggers like Mark the Cobra Snake and the Sartorialist?Y: Why, do you think we do the same thing?
O: Ah...no, I mean no.Y: Its like this, you go to a party and over there there is a tall red haired girl and over there there is a tiny girl with brown hair and there is no use even comparing. There is something for everyone in a way.
O: So what do you look for when you ask some one to take their picture?Y: Its about the seduction of the outfit. This guy could be wearing all Commes de Garcons and I could absolutely hate it and this guy could be wearing all H&M. Its the way they put it together. Its the seduction.
So maybe Yvan thought I was stalking him but in truth I decided recently if you want something ask for it. I've always been really uncomfortable with celebrity and all that it entails but I can now reconcile how I feel about it with the advent of internet celebrity. I wanted to meet him so I asked. As he told me "after that first interview in May 2006 I have had an interview everyday," which I have to admit was kind of intimidating. I mean I could have probably googled him and read a few cute little interviews about how he got started and all. Really, who am I to interview this awesome person when I am writing for my blog with a readership of... well lets not put numbers on it shall we? My point is, that's the thing about internet celebrity, he was totally willing to meet with me before he jetted off to Germany. He was just a real person doing things that he loves which I find totally inspiring. He turned a simple and fun hobby into a jammin' job that has rocketed him into the fast lane. Yvan the face hunter, we salute you.
Labels: blooogs, modaes interview, phartist
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