Image 7. Arena Homme+ Spring/Summer 2003 Issue 19
Photography: Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
Styling: Panos Yiapanis
Hair and make-up: Peter Philips
Model: Micheal Gandolfi
Inez van Lamsweerde
With Panos, his references are very punk and rock, but he makes it all himself; you feel the reference but he turns it into something which is very much of today, he pushes things forward. He almost designs things on the shoot, like a skirt made out of Converse sneakers - there's always this trunk of gear that comes with him, which he'll cut up and change on the spot. Vinoodh's and my photographs are quite classic, very posed. They show every single detail. When we did Arena Homme+ it was really the first time Panos used clothes from a designer and he didn't touch them or change them around. It was more about his choice of clothing rather than the transformation. There's also his friendship and respect for Veronique Branquinho, and ours too. In a way it was almost a rebellion to do something so chic and classic with him as the stylist, to go so the opposite from what he normally does. It was all groomed and the hair was done, almost preppy. But it had a sickness and a beauty; a sort of Rudolf Nureyev-like feeling.
Panos Yiapanis
Working with Inez and Vinoodh was a definite departure for me. Inez is the fashion side of what I do and David Armstrong is very much the other side. They both really inspire me, pushing me to go further. I know that Inez is usually very involved in the styling of her shoots, but from the first one we did together, with the model Carmen Cass, she just left me alone in the dressing room. I thought: "Oh no, she's really not into this." But she was, which was a big compliment. My work has changed recently, it has gone away from being a social thing about me and my friends, to becoming a study on clothes and their photography really works with that. I don't like camp aesthetics and one of the main things I've tried to do in my work is offer a man's aesthetic. But that isn't necessarily the GQ man. Men and women have the same mentality - the only difference is in the clothing and that's a technicality. Besides, I think men's magazines - and the photography and styling that goes in them - should show the world, and that world involves both men and women. I've always styled both sexes.
Image 8. Arena Homme+ Spring/Summer 2003 Issue 19
Photography: David Armstrong
Styling: Panos Yiapanis
Model: Orlando Miani
Hair: Rudi
David Armstrong
The key images for Panos and myself, I think, are the ones where the character of the subject is at least as important as what they are wearing. After all, you should never see what someone has on before you see the person himself, should you? My favourite pictures tend to appear direct to the point of bluntness, although, in actuality, if regarded with the time necessary to digest this, they are quite layered emotionally. With Panos the images work on many levels: aesthetic, political and emotional. What might come off as careless, I can assure you is more than carefully considered, in formal terms as well as those of content.
Panos Yiapanis
In many ways, I'm constantly at a loss with the fashion industry. Although I love clothes and I love expression through clothing, I think the six- monthly fashion cycle and trends are ludicrous. Doing my own thing is very important. That's why Orlando is very important to me because, along with George Clements and Jake Boyle, he is one of my guys. My relationship with Orlando is full of give-and-take. I have a lot of arguments with fashion editors because they want me to shoot a new guy and that is so opposite to what I am about. I don't want to hop from one thing to another. When I've done a shoot, say I've finished shooting Orlando, that time gives me an idea, I start thinking of taking what I did with him somewhere else, so naturally I want to shoot Orlando again. I don't want to apply those ideas to the new boy at Select, or whoever just did Dior, because Orlando inspired those ideas. The most important thing in a picture is who is in it. I see boys who are young, plucked out of nowhere, given loads of attention by the industry and made to feel special. Six months later they're suddenly dropped and they're no one again, it's shattering for them. I don't want that kind of disposable relationship with models. E