What is style of Lviv residents’ style? Conversation with "Street Style Hunter" author

This blog is run by a photographer from Lviv who created Street Style Hunter three years ago and is engaged in "street hunting".  She photographs stylishly dressed people walking the streets of Livic. The girl does not yet want to reveal her name and tries to do her work anonymously, thus being able to imperceptibly "catch" stylish people who look natural and organic on the streets of the city.

Espreso. Zahid was able to talk to the author of Street Style Hunter.

Tell us about yourself, what did you study, what did you do, where does your love for photography, fashion and style come from?

Love for photography arose when she was studying directing at the branch of Poplavskyi University in Lviv. Half of the classmates were photographers or cameramen. I liked studying there: good teachers and a cozy atmosphere.  Made short films, wrote scripts. I think that the it is connected to that time, because that's when I became interested in photography.

And about five years ago, I bought a camera and became more and more interested in photography. Became a freelancer, took pictures of various commercial and artistic things.  I realized that I perceive everything very strongly with my eyes. That's why I started trying to reproduce and show the good things I see in order to share them with people.

The idea of ​​Street Style Hunter is to share the beauty of the style of people walking around Lviv

How did Street Style Hunter come about, why did you decide to look for stylish people on the streets of Lviv?

I always start something new out of boredom.  Three years ago, it was November 2019, I was very bored.  I took a camera and went to take pictures of people on the street.  Because I always really liked to watch people, I dreamed of having a camera nearby at the right moments and catching those unique moments that I notice while walking around the city.

Once I was in the USA under the "Work and travel" program.  I was walking around town and a woman stopped me asking where I bought the dress I was wearing.  And I bought it second hand in Lviv for UAH 16!  The American woman showered me with compliments and it was very cool that someone appreciated my outfit.

The second moment was when I was on vacation in France, there in Nice I saw a very interesting woman with an incredible handbag, with some kind of beads, with feathers.  She impressed me, I wanted to photograph her.  Actually, such moments inspired me to photograph stylish people on the streets of Lviv.

After starting your blog, did you try to repeat a similar account, or is Street Style Hunter something spontaneous and unique in its own way?

It was all spontaneous, I just wanted to and didn't think to repeat after anyone.  These photos are not staged, but so underground, blurred.

By the way, the anonymity feature at the beginning interested me also because I thought that if the public is not interesting to anyone, then at least I will not be ashamed!  Moreover, I made a separate email to this account so that I would not be attracted by acquaintances.

  The account became popular because people are constantly tagging and reposting themselves and their friends

 Do you remember your first people who were on Street Style Hunter?

Yes of course!  One of the first was a couple in love.  Actually, the account shot up, because people found themselves or their friends, threw these photos in private, tagged them, reposted them and showed off.  People are very happy when their appearance is appreciated by others, then they feel self-affirmation.

Tell me how often you take pictures, is there any system and what is your selection criterion?

Yes, I have my own system.  I take photos at least three times a week.  Sometimes it happens that I come with nothing, because it is not the right day.  And sometimes in one hunting trip I can upload content for a whole week.

My selection criteria are simple.  First, I pay attention to something bright, it immediately catches the eye - clothes, texture, and then the brain turns on, what is it, what is it like, do I like it, will it be cool and new to my audience?  That's why it's purely my taste, everything here is very subjective, but people like it, so it turns out that to some extent I choose cool photos objectively.

Street Style Hunter walks where there are the most people

Where can people meet you most often?

Where there is the largest concentration of people, there will be Street Style Hunter.  I do not disclose my routes, it is, so to speak, secret information.

"My camera is always ready and charged every day"

 Exactly!  Because as soon as I leave it, I can miss something beautiful and then I will torture myself with it.  My camera is always ready and charged every day.

How do people react to you?  Does anyone already recognize and know by face?

Yes, some know what I look like, especially those who live or work downtown.  They can purposely stand for a long time and pretend to be on the phone, when in fact they are waiting for me to take a picture of them.  Sometimes I want to go up to that girl or boy and say, go with God, I already took a picture of you!

"For people, this public is like a fashion magazine in which it is important to be in"

Regarding advertising cooperation, do you photograph for any brands?

I want to promote more advertising and cooperate with Ukrainian brands.  The last such good cooperation was with one fashion network.  The network gave me freedom in choosing brands, clothes and told me to do what I wanted.  I went and looked at what was there, wrote to my "victims" - they were Alik, Yana and Yara.  And we did a cool joint work.

Do you have any other social networks or is Street Style Hunter only on Instagram?

Only instagram so far.  I have certain plans for Telegram, because I finally understood how to present information there, as it should be

Lviv is more about the femininity of clothes, and Kyiv is about oversized

From your observation, what is Lviv fashion, style, can it be called special?

Every city, and even every point on the globe, is special, and Lviv is no exception.  Because the weather like here, the cobblestones and architecture are only in this city and nowhere else, and all this affects the way people dress.  The same can be said about Paris or Milan.  The city and its living conditions often reflect the style of the people.

In Lviv, I notice frequent accents on the waist, femininity is welcomed here, more ostentatious.  Kyiv, after all, is more oversized and androgynous.  Although all this is very relative.  But there is such a thing as Lviv charm.  In our country, people always emphasize their forms beautifully.  It can be seen that they do not do it by chance, but want to show their style, think about it.  I also like how we integrate scarves, hats, shoes.  How women cope with Lviv cobblestones and still look very feminine.  There is this silhouette of a Lviv woman…

And are photo captions special for you too?

So!  I used to write almost a memoir under each photo, now there are fewer words.  In addition, before the full-scale war, I blogged in English.  The idea was that our style should be spread to the world level.  That is, it should be seen not only by Ukrainians.  But the war made its adjustments.  I thought, why am I working for an audience unknown to me?  Then I switched to the Ukrainian language.  A funny moment, just when I switched to Ukrainian, I was reposted by Leandra Medin, a well-known blogger from New York.  She has 1.1 million followers.  Then I immediately had + 4 thousand followers!  These new people have started writing, they say the blog is great, but can you at least translate something from time to time?  Such is the irony of fate.

Raise a million for the Armed Forces and then Street Style Hunter can reveal his name

 What are your plans for the future?

You have to think about the future.  I know exactly how I want it to be in Ukraine, but for myself, I am thinking about becoming even more professional in terms of style and photography, so that it is even more interesting to do my job.  In any case, I would like some creative communication and more cooperation.  Because we have a lot of brilliant people from whom there is something to learn.

Have you thought about revealing your real name to the public and doing Street Style Hunter without anonymity?

I don't know what to say to the public by turning on the selfie camera.  For now, this kind of communication with subscribers is enough for me.  I thought that if I did declassify myself completely, then maybe by holding a meeting-lecture under the condition of collecting a million for the Armed Forces.  The idea is cool, but I still don't know if it will be possible to do this and I don't know how to implement it correctly and competently.

 By the way, how do your family and friends follow your activities?

 My best friend says honestly: "I don't understand!".  That is, there are those who say, why do I care?  And there are those who say that I'm just some kind of goddess, because it's incredible.  But when you yourself know why you're doing it, you don't depend so much on people's reactions.  Street Style Hunter is about intuition, which has become the key to my success.

Author: Yuriy Martynovych