i agree that the notion of ‘getting real’ is really interesting, especially if you are a creative (writer/photographer/designer/etc.) working primarily from an online context: you post content on a daily basis, you interact more with your audience. if you’ve honed a strong voice and get two hundred comments per posting, you’ve not only developed a strong and invested community but also a v. intimate relationship with those individuals. if you’ve read scott or danielle or anita right from the start, the nature of online really perpetuates a realness that colours how you engage with the work.

which is why i’m kinda wondering if it’s actually gone the other way — that scott has turned left from the cunningham roots and is really developing a street style ‘artifice’. blogs are becoming increasingly monetized (which is great!), but no one is for sure about how that will change the content; you’ve already seen how print has engaged the online as a means to drop behind-the-scenes free content that helps to promote the paid content. it’s become all about strategy.

if anything, i feel like the gregariousness that everyone encountered in toronto (from public appearance to media interviews to drunken cocktail party fodder) is perhaps an encounter with a creative person’s strong sense of self, a definite confidence in their work (hey, maybe you can even call it ego). it’s the bravado of someone who shoots campaigns and editorials, right? perhaps it’s so surprising to ppl that the bravado still comes from someone rooted in the online — a guy no longer just the post-9/11 dad shooting new york street style, but now a big-time photog traveling to diff cities that still shoots new york street style.

http://www.eyeweekly.com/blog/post/67139–a-date-with-the-sartorialist

This morning I woke up with a thought about “getting real”. It seems like there has been a trend for a while for polishing ourselves online (for instance, the sartorialist editing his comments), and I think the logical development will be a counter-trend to “get real” – so, yes we have sex, yes we get drunk, yes we feel insecure, yes we make mistakes. Perhaps the over-candid interview is an incredibly refreshing thing.