The Project

Well it’s been a long wait and after months of planning and getting everything together the project has come to completion. I want to give a huge thanks to Craig for enduring the weather with me and being such a rad guy for this photo shoot. Please make sure to read the closing comments for my thoughts and inspiration!

I’ve had this idea of a vintage shoot I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It involved a very specific look and time period. I went in having a good idea of what I wanted it to be like. I was thinking about different types of people I could use for the project, Craig was one of  them and was interested in the idea I had. After I did a little bit of research on clothes and the look, I got an extra boost of inspiration from a GQ article on black history month and fashion. Well those were definitely two things I was interested in bringing into the project. Little did I realize how hard it would be to find pictures of people in the era, even harder for an African American, which made me even more excited about it because it was challenging!

Researching the whole thing was fun in itself, the GQ article had little to nothing for pictures to go on, most of the pics featured newer model shoots with vintage clothes, but I actually wanted the look without new clothes. So I envisioned what fashion would be like for a GQ magazine of 1950.  Then applied what I could find to fit. Pleated pants, skinny tie was all the rage for musicians. Nobody back then went around without wearing a hat, especially in the northern states like New York. Most images I did find I noticed that everything was pretty much solid color, and if you happen to have a job it was always a white button up. Very simple and to the point.  I wanted the images to have a vintage black and white film feel to add to the look, I’ve always loved film and really wanted to incorporate that into it.

With that in mind, I had the look I wanted, the model, and the props, I set out to accomplish what I wanted. I put special emphasis on the props, especially ones we all know and love, skinny ties, old rotary phones and televisions and Classic Coca Cola! Coca Cola has been an American staple of our culture, it would’ve been hard not to include it especially when it adds so much to the character I had created. My ultimate goal was to have a fashion feel with a lot of character about who the man was, I think I got exactly what I wanted.  I’m so excited that I get to debut these today and for the great experience and friendship I’ve developed from the project. I hope to bring more stuff like this to the table, especially since I’m even thinking of making this particular session a series over the next couple of years.

Enjoy, and feel free to comment!

All images © Matt Hudson