“Jeunes Parisiens” (Young Parisians) is the first book of Parisian photographer Hugues Lawson. In his book he tried to caputure the different styles of the Parisian youth.
It took him 3 years to complete his project and his photo book was released in December 2010. Hugues Lawson also worked for various companies such as Nike, Ikea, Orange, Kinder Bueno and collaborates with various magazines like Time, L'Equipe Magazine, GQ and Elle. Lawson is born in Togo and lives and works in Paris France.
According to the lifestyle magazine Mail Movement, Hugues Lawson was interested in today's youngster, totally different from those of his generation.
Those that we pass everyday, that we stare, we're trying to understand the attitude, the codes, forgetting that each of us have been there before Hugues Lawson put himself in our place and tried to know more, to do a portrait without scratchs of this new generation, which mixes, tangled and often stay in groups.
"I was surprised by these teens, dancing on African music in their hall, in a city of the 20th district, and obviously, I'm getting old," he explains. "I wanted to learn more about this generation and my work forced me to document myself. Some meetings have resulted in others, some funny ones, crazy, rich... And my one-day models were interested in my approach, and have often seen me as one of their own.
Despite my limited slang and my age, they never treated me as an intruder. I wasn't expecting much naturalness and spontaneity from them.
My city, Paris, is cosmopolitan and contrary to popular belief, all the Parisians are not white! I tried to capture this reality," he continues. "In these tribes, I tried to identify: the leader, the origin, the appurtenance to a movement, the style, and then the details: the fringe in common, metal objects, tattoos, piercings, religious symbols, pointy-toed shoes and some platforms of some of them..."
Published by 19/80 Editions, "Jeunes Parisiens" (Young Parisians) isn't a collection of photos, or one of those famous books compiling the fashion outfits of foreigners crossed in the street. "The fashion balance exists in this book, but it doesn't thunder like on the fashion blogs or magazines.
This book is not a "Fashion" dictionary, it's a book about today's "Young Parisian" concludes Hugues Lawson. Indeed, the book contains some notes and texts by Mark Beauge, William Klein and Oxmo Puccino." (Source: Mail Movement) An interview with Hugues Lawson
Some links: http://jeunes-parisiens.tumblr.com http://next.liberation.fr http://www.ideabooks.nl