Max Pearmain on RAY PETRI

The work of Ray Petri was a revelation to me when I discovered it, aged I guess around 16. It was one of the first times I’d seen styling really lead an image.

I could choose any number of images t hat he produced with the likes of Jamie Morgan and Roger Charity, but these photos by Morgan of Felix Howard always stick in my mind. They’re classic, contemporary, beautiful, hard, British, international, now, then, masculine, feminine, strong, soft, real, fantasy, control led, wild, stoical, sentimental and modern. They give me such energy ever y t ime I pick them out.