Fujifilm GFX100S II: Walking the Catwalk

Combining fashion photography with a street-style approach, Andrew Barber requires powerful imaging capabilities in a lightweight package

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“I initially began photography by walking around the streets of London in search of individuals with distinct styles. The goal of street-style photography is to inspire and influence the way we dress daily,” begins Andrew Barber, a fashion photographer and videographer based in the UK. “I’d spend a lot of time walking around east and central London, where I might find people with an interesting look. By the end of the year, I built up a small portfolio with over 360 of my favourite looks on the streets of London.

“A friend of mine saw my work and asked me to do a gig during London Fashion Week for a small client. This was the place to be as you had fashion buyers, editors, models and celebrities travelling from all around the world to attend these shows. You can see them congregating at the shows, eating at cafes and going from venue to venue. Later, I went on to work for GQ China and Italy. In 2019, I was the first street-style photographer to work for all editions of GQ around the world.

“This is where it all grew,” he adds. “I was primarily known as a street-style photographer but as time went on, I branched into backstage and catwalk photography across the main fashion capitals. I was also invited to emerging fashion weeks in countries like Fiji, Kazakhstan and even Georgia, to shed light on new designers and continue to build an international portfolio of my work with other magazine companies.”

It was at Paris Fashion Week that Barber had the opportunity to work with the new FUJIFILM GFX100S II. The way it seamlessly blends high-end performance with a lightweight build is perfect for his work.

With his street-style images still a speciality, Barber tells us about the imaging challenges unique to working in the fashion world. “Unpredictable is a word you can use – you never know when you’re going to see something special,” he remarks. “With street or travel photography, I believe you can always go out and find something worth documenting with a little more ease. Add ‘style’ to the end of the word and you constantly find yourself needing to analyse the way each and every individual is dressed, as well as the environment you are working in. The cut, the prints, the hidden messages and level of detail on an outfit, colour combinations, layering – the list goes on and on. You have to be fast when photographing a fashion week as there is so much happenning in a short space of time.”

Furnished with the high-performance X-Processor 5 imaging engine, the GFX100S II can deliver highly responsive AF, helping Barber attain the results he strives for with incredible reliability.

“I work in manual on my camera but make the most of Fujifilm’s AF abilities and subject tracking; everything in fashion moves so quickly,” Barber admits. “You want to create the perfect image within a small timeframe, so this tool is crucial. Fortunately, the tracking on the GFX100S II is incredible.

“Burst mode is something I use frequently too. The GFX100S II can do 7fps, which is ample – especially because you can make 102-megapixel photos, meaning you have more than enough data to work with. Just as long as you time your movement right and are in a good position, you can create that image perfectly.

“There’s so much going on; you have to look out for security or even cars – sometimes you’re standing in the middle of the road trying to frame something up,” Barber explains. “You’ll have between 100 and 200 people coming out of a show and must carefully see who is best to photograph, observing if you can try and tell a story from it.”

For the duration of a fashion event, it’s then a case of rinse and repeat for Barber. “Typically, I will work from nine in the morning until seven in the evening. I’ll be going from location to location, then rushing home to edit my work and submit it to my clients. Holding a camera for that long can be exhausting, particularly when you add the weight of an additional lens.”

Fortunately, the GFX100S II is the lightest camera Fujifilm has ever fit a 102-megapixel sensor into. At just 883g, Barber feels he doesn’t have to compromise between imaging capabilities and working with something manageable.

“Being able to walk around with a camera, feeling like I can compose whenever it’s necessary, it’s extremely important,” he comments. “You never know when something will happen, and you want to make a picture of that moment with ease. I don’t like to faff around with a backpack and take my lenses out then set everything up. I love creating photos in the moment – as soon as I see something.

“Ever since using the FUJIFILM GFX100S and now the GFX100S II, I see the beauty within my own work,” Barber concludes. “Cropping into my images and still seeing them appear extremely sharp – you have so much more to play around with. You can manipulate your images in many different ways without breaking the file. It’s a beautiful camera to be using and definitely the way forward.” 

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This feature was first published in Issue 116 of Photography News.