Fashion Photographer: Lee Clower
Some of you may know Lee Clower, or perhaps you’ve seen his work before. Clower is a fashion photographer and has shot for Gucci, Marc Jacobs, the New York Times, Michelle Obama, Travis Scott, and the list goes on. When talking to Clower he explained that he actually started as a stylist for Conde Nast. He would design sets and come up with concepts. Then, photographers would come in to shoot, however, Lee felt that they never truly captured his vision. Soon after, he decided to start shooting his own work and his photography career took off from there.
If you take a look at his work, you’ll notice he works and promotes a lot of his projects with kids. When asked why he chooses to work with kids he said it was accidental. He was working on a huge set and the last 10 days of the set were all kids, at first, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it because he had never worked with kids before. However, he did and ended up bonding with a few of them. This was right around the start of Instagram where kids were the predominant market on the platform, so he chose to promote the kids so those on the platform could relate. Now, years later he works, in a niche market of high-end kidswear.
That’s not all he does though, while kids are featured a great lot on his website and Instagram, he works a great deal with big public figures. He also consults and works for companies to help build their social media presence and overall business. Clower was fortunate enough that when the pandemic hit in 2020 he was still able to work. In fact, he got to help brands figure out how to now market in such a changing world.
Clower mentioned that he has actually worked with interns from LIM, and he admired that our school focused more specifically on the business side of fashion. I asked what advice he could give to someone like me who is interested in photography and set designs. He mentioned that it’s hard nowadays because everyone seems to think they are a photographer thanks to social media, but he said to always follow your heart. Being heart-minded makes a difference in a person's work, and people notice it.
