the Straight Up

The Straight-Up is a documentary style of photography pioneered by Terry Jones, founder and editor-in-chief of i-D magazine, in 1977. Taking its name from a West Country expression meaning 'tell it like it is', a Straight-Up typically captures a head-to-toe portrait of someone street cast with great personal style, often accompanied by a short Q&A defining their life, likes and dislikes.

The origins of The Straight-Up

In 1977, inspired by the honesty of August Sander's social documentary portraits and Irving Penn's Small Trade series, Terry Jones commissioned British photographer Steve Johnston to photograph London punks head-to-toe against a plain white wall on the Kings Road. Jones intended the pictures to run as a cultural piece in British Vogue, where he then worked as Art Director. The photographs however were considered too revolutionary, so Jones ran the images in a book he was art directing called Not Another Punk Book, published by Aurum Press. These Straight-Ups went on to form the basis of i-D, a hand-stapled fanzine founded by Jones in 1980. As i-D grew from a humble fanzine into an internationally celebrated fashion magazine, the Straight-Up-style of photography grew with it, culminating in an entire issue of the magazine dedicated to the photographic style in August 2003 (The Straight-Up Issue, No. 234). Today Straight-Ups continue to feature in i-D capturing new trends on the streets as they happen. A number of other magazines, newspapers and blog sites have since adopted the style.

Further reading

• www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/sep/01/interviews.onlinesupplement
• www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=21&fid=68

External links

• i-D online