What The Heck Is Going On With My Friends?!

Please note we are NOT promoting smoking as something adultery or responsible, it was used for a sake of atmosphere, composition and mood in the image below. So now we can start this week’s episode.

What the heck is going on with my friends?! They’re like exchanged… and that’s great!

Let me tell you a story. It was this spring when I was walking home from school with my good (now already ex) classmate. We met last year and we haven’t known each other for a long period of time but our paths crossed somehow. In a good way, obviously.

I remember, it was at the turn of terms when I realised how good was dressed. What I thought was that he started to be interested in menswear much more. I was right. Later that day I told him: “Hey, Michael! You look great!”

Subsequently, we started to break this topic down in pieces and basically to find an answer why he does what he does. He acknowledged that he used to meet with people who don’t give any value to his life. They’re just friends, nothing less, nothing more…

What he came up with is a decision. “I know what I want to do and these people are not part of the plan…” He used to hang out with some people and just chill around, no further responsibilities. This ain’t a true anymore… He became a charismatic, confident man with a great sense of humour with some nice aspirations for his own future. The decision was done all by himself.

He also told me: “…you know what? I’ve always wanted to dress better, more manly. But every single time something inside shouted at me that I can’t. I still thought about what my friends would think and other crap like this…” Luckily for him, all of these unimportant doubts have gone.

Let’s look at it in retrospective. How did our grandpas use to dress? (And still use.) They were the real life gentlemen! Real heroes in the world of manliness.

Handkerchiefs for a crying woman? Good manners? The ability to show up when needed and to go away when not? You know what I’m talking about…

We realised that our grandpas even go to the grocery stores wearing a blazer! That’s what I love about them. How they hold the consistency throughout decades.

This is what inspired me when creating the project called “Grown-up.” That magic moment when a boy becomes a man. It is interesting how this kind of ritual is being done differently in certain countries or cultures. Male Rites of Passages. From Vanuatu Land Diving to Maasai Warrior Passage.

Although these rituals are a bit too crazy and insane at the same time, in our society is this process way more relaxed and it happens more on the psychological level. It means a human starts to think about him/herself more from the adult point of view, that he/she is not anymore just a kid bouncing around.

Don’t take me wrong. I prefer to be a responsible person but with a little kid inside of me. Yet these topic fascinates me. Stories of people who’ve found the light at the end of a tunnel and how did they find it. It’s much more interesting to see them doing something meaningful for them.

It is a bit difficult to show people’s change of behaviour on a photograph. (I’ll take it as a challenge for the future projects!) What is important, though, the most visible change is simply in dressing. Please note nothing superficial here.

Clothing and behaviour are our languages. They tell different stories about ourselves. What we like, who we are. Isn’t it great to see a friend from a childhood who stepped up to the pedestal of personal confidence, self-awareness and personal growth? I think it is!

This project does not superficially judge people via their clothes but it’s easily the most visible and most usable aspect for visual expression which is in our case a photograph.

There is a bit of contrast between the two guys on photographs. One of them is my old good friend from my childhood and the other one is a new. However, they are connected in the same way — we’re not kids anymore, we are growing up so let’s fight the world together!

Do you have similar experiences with people you know? Let me know in the comments section below, I’d love to hear your stories! Cheers!