Sylvester and Matt. All photos by Walter Pearce
Walter Pearce recently stopped by the VICE offices and offered to take some pictures at Paris Fashion Week, where he was going to model in a number of shows. I immediately recognized him from that Eckhaus Latta poppers ad, but more importantly, his photographs seemed unique to me, given what most photographs of fashion shows look like. But these pictures are singular in the driest way possible—Pearce seems to find himself in some pretty spectacular situations, but his pictures rarely depict the spectacle at hand. While press photographers clamber and trample one another, all trying to get the same view of the model on the runway, Walter Pearce instead focuses on the fire extinguisher in the corner of the room, the shoes of people waiting to enter the show, a crack in the ceiling of the staging area. He also photographs people he meets along the way, employing a style that is both heavily vernacular and unselfconscious. Maybe it’s just the expatriate factor, but to me, Pearce’s landscapes might call to mind a sedated Berenice Abbott. Maybe his still lifes are an anesthetized Atget, his portraits a blasé Brassaï. To all of these comparisons, add a healthy measure of post-Warholian detachment, and an aesthetic that is unmistakably contemporary. Welcome to Paris, the city of lights, the fashion capital of the world! Now, let’s look at the floor.
Videos by VICE
Rick Owens show
Paris
Backstage at Gosha Rubchinskiy
Ciccolina
Comme des Garçons showroom
Comme des Garçons showroom
Paris
Comme des Garçons showroom
Document magazine party
Dust magazine party
Free food at the Comme des Garcons showroom
Masses magazine party
Gosha Rubchinskiy
Gosha Rubchinskiy at Ciccolina
Mark Hsu at Dries Van Noten party
Masses magazine party
Masses magazine party
Masses magazine party
Matching at Masses
Matching outside of Rick Owens
Paris
Paris
Rick Owens exterior
Masses magazine party
Saint Laurent Paris show exterior
Saint Laurent Paris show
Paris
Undercover party
Showroom boy
Walter Pearce is an NYC-based photographer, writer, and model. Follow him on Instagram for more dry moments from exciting places, and plenty of selfies.
