JAMIE MORGAN
studio
‘Jamie Morgan on the next-gen of Buffalo kids’
In the early 1980s, Morgan, along with legendary stylist Ray Petri, co-founded Buffalo, the disruptive London style movement that clashed genders, age, cultures and references, resulting in a radical take on self-expression. Their images were defined by non-conformity: traditional masculinity was challenged through skirts and lippy, hard, steely faces full of attitude, kids in grown-up tailoring, far removed from the ’80s aesthetic of overt glamour and tradition.
Alongside photographer Mark Lebon, artist Barry Kamen, musician Cameron McVey and stylist Judy Blame, the movement became a collective continuation of the previous decade’s punk-ish spirit, leaving its mark on every cultural style bible of today (not least this one).
Now, Morgan, in his 60s, is focusing on the next gen. His latest exhibition, Buffalo: Future Generation at Ladbroke Hall, West London, is an ongoing reprisal of his seminal work, featuring 150 kids, photographed straight-up, styled by Kimi O’Neill, and found either through street-casting (the old Buffalo method), or friends-of-friends (Morgan’s got plenty – the children of Kate Moss, Ozwald Boateng, and Martine Rose all appear in the show).
For a photographer like Morgan, who has shot some of Britain’s biggest characters – Boy George, Steve Strange, Neneh Cherry – the process of casting for an exhibition of this size is a bit like working out a puzzle. “There’s a few different levels,” he explains, Zooming in from his home in West London. “Are they a bit rock and roll? Are they disco? What character are they? Where do they fit in the world? You’re led by them and who they are.” Which is tricky when most of the subjects are below 16 – an age when you’re only just beginning to figure out who you are.