Freezing a moment
Houston photographer finds following
Instagram took Cary Fagan to a whole new level.
He got an up-close look at Kanye West’s Yeezy fall collection at New York Fashion Week. West hired the Houston photographer, who has more than 15,000 Instagram followers, to document his fall fashions — a mix of hoodies, combat boots and parkas paired with opaque camisoles — at Madison Square Garden.
Fagan, 26, who was paid handsomely for his work, had only a few words with West.
“He said he’s been following my work and he’s a fan,” Fagan said. “I felt my inner body just jump out, then go back in. I didn’t want the outside to show that flinch of excitement.”
The biggest gig of Fagan’s career came through West’s stylist, who posed the question in a text: “Are you ready to level up?”
“I was kind of confused. I didn’t know what that meant at the time,” Fagan recalled. He gets it now.
“You level up after each big accomplishment.”
Now, his ankle tattoo reads “Level Up.”
Fagan also has collaborated with New York fashion label Richard&Grace on its look-books.
Just this year, Fagan has been hired for photography jobs in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Marfa and New Mexico.
On a trip to White Sands, N.M., Fagan became “obsessed” with the car windshield reflector. He and his model/muse girlfriend, Cintrena, styled the shiny, silver panel into a dress to catch the sun’s rays. “It came out looking like something you would see in Vogue,” he said.
His work is on exhibit at an art gallery in Russia — his debut as a fine-art photographer, which he calls his biggest accomplishment.
As a boy, Fagan watched his dad photograph junior-league football as a hobby. He was captivated by the process of freezing a moment in time into an image. He played around with digital cameras and made frequent trips to Brazos Bend State Park to shoot nature.
But after he discovered the work of Houston photographer Tamara Lichtenstein, film photography became his passion.
“I shoot film because you can’t get those colors with digital unless you edit them,” Fagan said. “It feels like I’m unwrapping a gift because you don’t know what you’re getting — until it’s developed. You learn from it.”
His work stands out among the filtered and saturated shots on Instagram.
The details of a photo that might seem irrelevant to a viewer are often the things that intrigue Fagan.
To that point, he photographed Cintrena wearing a plastic bag on her head; only her mouth is uncovered. He calls the image “Breathe.”
“I think today people live on the internet, and they don’t allow themselves to breathe and take in everything,” he said. “With that photo, I wanted to say, ‘Take a break from the internet and allow things in nature to influence you.’ ”
Fagan, who graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land, is studying computer science and information systems online through University of Houston.
He expresses gratitude for the success that has come through social media.
“I woke up one morning, and someone in the UK had discovered my work on social media. They spent $600 on photos in 10 minutes,” he said. “Now that I’ve branded myself and represent myself as an artist, it’s easier for people to find me.”
His prints and new book, “Naked,” are on sale on his website, cary-fagan. com
As his career unfolds, Fagan hopes to open his own art space to work with emerging photographers.
In the meantime, he spends down time with Cintrena in her hometown of Seymour in north-central Texas.
He said it gives him time to breathe. joy.sewing@chron.com twitter.com/joysewing