Phil Oh a.k.a Mr Street Peeper might just have the best job there is! Travelling the world photographing the beautiful and the surprising with backstage access to fashion week, not to mention the green light from Vogue. But Phil Oh knows there is more to a good photograph than a happy accident.
Street Style photography these days is as important, if not more relevant than sanctioned editorial. Urban photographers like Phil Oh, feed into the public’s demand for the ‘ism’s’ (realism and voyeurism) by capturing an industry that’s usually contrived in a more natural state. Editorial photography is rich with agenda, of conceptual and commercial overtures that cajole attraction through fantasy and story. Even when the subject is gritty and paired back, it can’t be categorised in the same plane as street photography because it lacks the incidental. The unaccounted for: the untimed happenings, people, places and reactions that occur in and around the main subject, being the muse in the case of street style photography.
Though they are not the photographers focus, it is a true art form when a photographer like Phil Oh finds the balance between the fore and backgrounds. In effect encapsulating the historical period, the culture and the mood of that particular moment. In some cases the muse can be obvious, drawing the eye not only of the photographer but the passers by, this can be a magical moment when natural emotions are captured. At other times, the photographer can single-handedly discover what others miss, creating stars from the unknown and surprising us with the overlooked.
There will always be a public fascination for what people are wearing because it speaks to our own aesthetic journey. What street style does is equalise the playing field: whether you are a celebrity, model or an unknown, whether you dress conservatively, ethnically or completely flip fashion on its head – you can be snapped in an unguarded moment. Through our style choices we can partake in an act of creation that underpins why designers themselves create.
Phil Oh is capturing more than ground driven trends and innate style, he has mastered depth through the incidental and recorded history for providence. His work is always current, always expressive and always on point with within the fashion zeitgeist. It is a rare occasion when the photographer becomes the muse, but with 171K Instagram followers Phil Oh can be both.
To catch Phil’s Oh latest offerings from London and Milan head here. If you know of an Instagram star worthy of the spotlight tag them below and let us know why!
