Laura Hennighausen
"The Sartorialist to appear Friday at Hagedorn Foundation"
September 16, 2010, BURNAWAY

After leaving a job in the fashion industry to care for his small daughter, Schuman found himself snapping photos of well-dressed folks he met on the street and uploading them to a blog. Soon after The Sartorialist was born, it quickly caught on and was soon everywhere. His interest in the clothes worn by exceptional, yet everyday, people as they went about their business brought what some felt was a higher calling for getting dressed in the morning.

The exhibition at Hagedorn Foundation Gallery presents 45 of Schuman’s immaculately detailed prints as if they were a brilliant magazine unfolding in front of the viewer, page by page. None of the photos are obstructed by glass, allowing the viewer to feel like they could jump into the scene or reach out and touch the subject. The absence of barriers helps maintain the notion of accessibility to Schuman’s work, the models, and their clothing.

Walking from photo to photo is a scavenger hunt for those familiar with the upper echelons of fashion lore, as Hamish Bowles and others pop up beside nameless (albeit fabulous) citizens. As I studied each of the photos, I had a hard time imagining that the subjects didn’t spend an extra few minutes perfecting their looks in hopes of being caught by Schuman’s lens. Schuman often pictures them facing his camera with little to no facial expression. But I must confess my favorites are those where the subject seems unaware of Schuman’s eye, or where the person reacts to the camera, makes a face, or giggles at the attention. These gems are also on display.

Bouncing back and forth from blogs, to published catalogues, to gallery shows, Schuman blurs the lines defining what one might consider to be art.

LINK: http://www.burnaway.org/2010/09/the-sartorialist-to-appear-friday-at-hagedorn-foundation/