Industry, Now
GEORGE KOCIS
GEORGE KOCIS
Portrait by Ben Hassett for Models.com
#IndustryNow The cycles of social media impel us to embrace then move on from trends and discourses faster than ever before. The life span of a single work––an editorial, a campaign, a show, a stint––is shorter for it. Fashion’s only unconditional term is the future: operating a year ahead, after all. So, in an industry where change and relevancy are the full stops at the end of every sentence, Models.com wanted to highlight individuals who add permanence to the community–some at their start and some at their top. Photographer Ben Hassett gets up close and personal for Models.com with the creative forces often behind the scenes. They are the Industry, Now.
Since 1981 and its first exhibition with Horst P. Horst, Staley-Wise gallery –– of its founders Etheleen Staley and Taki Wise –– has helped exalt fashion photographs to their potentials as works of art. The Soho gallery’s walls have since maintained that vision, mounting masters of the craft on its walls like Herb Ritts, Arthur Elgort, Lillian Bassman, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, David LaChapelle, Slim Aarons and other influential photographers. Staley-Wise’s director, George Kocis, has acted as an arbiter of taste during his thirteen years amongst its collection, deciding which names meet the gallery’s discerning criteria. Kocis, often only photographed at openings, is a man more frequently behind-the-scenes than in press, but a glance at exhibitions under his supervision shows his judgement has helped shape an often disputed fashion-as-art opinion.
Can commercial work be personal?
Commercial work can definitely be personal. Or it should be, right? I would hope that a client is hiring a photographer to exhibit a sense of style and their own point of view. Staley-Wise Gallery was sort of founded on the principle that photographers creating beautiful images primarily seen in magazines and advertisements deserved to be appreciated and valued as much as any other artist. A great photograph is a great photograph, regardless of the context it was created in. One of our jobs as a gallery is to continue to remind an audience of this.
