Photograph, c-print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Strictly
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jason-evans-3246" aria-label="More by Jason Evans" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Jason Evans</a>, stylist <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/simon-foxton-3889" aria-label="More by Simon Foxton" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Simon Foxton</a>
Presented anonymously 2001
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
black
car
clothing and personal items
emotions, concepts and ideas
ethnicity
fashion
formal qualities
house
lifestyle and culture
man
objects
people
photographic
race
residential
social comment
society
standing
street
suit
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
<p>In the early 1990s a number of photographers began to shape a new style of fashion photography inspired by the authentic street style of a diverse and multi-racial youth culture. Evans collaborated with stylist Simon Foxton on this series of portraits of young black men dressed as 'country gents'. Evans later wrote: 'Strictly was a weird mixture of macho clothes and quite effeminate clothes. Sportswear-based but classical English things, turned around. The syntax of clothes was completely upside down, and then, worn by black people, it was a new vision of Britain. We were trying to break down stereotypes.'</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper print photograph c-print
1 July 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
4 August 2003 – 26 October 2003
2003-10-26
2003-08-04
Instituto Tomie Ohtake (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
16 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-16
Paco Imperial (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
2003-07-01
A Bigger Splash: British Art from Tate 1960-2003
Tate partnerships & programmes
17 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
17 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
2011-09-17
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2011-09-17
Nothing in the world but youth
Loan-out
26 March 2013 – 1 June 2014
2014-06-01
26 March 2013 – 18 May 2013
2013-05-18
2013-03-26
Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), (London, UK)
2013-03-26
Keywords
Loan-out
4 April 2014 – 28 September 2014
2014-09-28
4 April 2014 – 28 September 2014
2014-09-28
2014-04-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-04-04
Source
Collection based display
7 October 2022 – 1 May 2023
2023-05-01
7 October 2022 – 1 May 2023
2023-05-01
2022-10-07
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2022-10-07
Dandy Style
Loan-out
21 November 2024 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
21 November 2024 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
2024-11-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2024-11-21
The 80s: Photographing Britain
Exhibition
[no title]
support: 805 × 805 mm
frame: 807 × 807 × 38 mm
Presented anonymously 2001
<p>Jason Evans, working under the pseudonym ‘Travis’, was one of a number of photographers whose work first appeared in the new fashion and lifestyle magazines that emerged in the 1990s. These publications worked to blur the boundaries between art, fashion and life, and championed a new sort of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Realism'"><span>realism</span></a> in fashion <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photography</span></a>, where photographers drew inspiration from street and youth culture, capturing the authentic, ordinary and everyday.
<br/>
<br/>This photograph, taken as part of Evans’s first fashion shoot, is from the series <i>Strictly</i>, which was originally published in 1991 in London-based <i>i-D </i>magazine. Each work in the series depicts a young black man standing on a suburban street. Shown full-length, and directly facing the viewer, Evan’s models wear impassive expressions and strike neutral poses. Evans was interested in the nineteenth-century notion of the dandy at the time of making these images, and saw the men as exemplifying contemporary flaneurs. As is common in contemporary commercial photography, Evans worked with a stylist, Simon Foxton (born 1961), in producing the series of images. Commonly used in editorial work, stylists contribute to the staging of photo shoots, arranging the clothing and props and acting as scouts for locations and models, and as such are influential to the look of an image. The clothing worn by the models in Evans’s images is an eclectic mix of separates – in the main, urban sportswear combined with elements of classic British tailoring – and is idiosyncratic rather than obviously fashionable. “The syntax of the clothes was completely upside down,” Evans said of the work. “It was a new vision of Britain. We were trying to break down stereotypes.” (Evans quoted in Val Williams, <i>Look at Me: Fashion and Photography 1960 to the Present</i>, exhibition catalogue, British Council, London, 1998, p.113) 
<br/>
<br/>The photographs in <i>Strictly</i> combine the staginess of a fashion shoot with the cool neutrality of the documentary. They are at home in their suburban street environment. The low viewpoint gives the men a commanding quality; we literally look up to them. While the work is firmly in the format of editorial fashion photography – even in the gallery space the artist suggests the images might be shown in pairs, echoing a magazine layout – the images fit easily in other contexts. Like the work of other photographers of this generation, for example Wolfgang Tillmans (born 1968), Evans’s work weakens the distinctions that had previously existed between commercial photography and high art. These images have the appearance of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraiture</span></a>, and might be seen as an exploration of identity politics, particularly race and sexuality, or as a documentary photo-essay on aspects of London’s multiculturalism. Evans saw the work as more than simply documenting new developments in street culture. Instead, he was interested in the possibilities of using the format of fashion photography to explore social issues, not only by framing a set of codes or a semiotics of sub-cultural style, but also presenting them in an ambiguous context. 
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Val Williams, <i>Look at Me: Fashion and Photography 1960 to the Present</i>, exhibition catalogue, British Council, London, 1998, pp111-113, 123, series reproduced pp.68-69 in colour, reproduced p. 113 (detail)
<br/>Iwona Blazwick (ed), <i>Century City</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London, 2001, reproduced p.74 in colour (detail)
<br/>
<br/>Maria Bilske
<br/>October 2004</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>In the early 1990s a number of photographers began to shape a  new style of fashion <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photography</span></a>  inspired by the authentic street style of  a diverse and multi-racial youth culture. 
</p><p>
Evans collaborated with stylist Simon Foxton on this series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> of  young black men dressed as 'country gents'. Evans later wrote: 'Strictly was a weird mixture of macho clothes and quite effeminate clothes. Sportswear-based  but <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> English things, turned around.  The syntax of clothes was completely upside down, and then, worn by black people, it was a new vision of Britain. We were trying to break down stereotypes.'
</p><p>
</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults architecture black car clothing and personal items emotions, concepts and ideas ethnicity fashion formal qualities house lifestyle and culture man objects people photographic race residential social comment society standing street suit townscapes / man-made features transport: land