Interview: The Selby

July 26th, 2010

By now you’ve probably seen Todd Selby’s colourful new book, The Selby is in Your Place (reviewed in The Block issue 22). Yes, it’s a society book. And yes, it’s the offspring of his blog, The Selby. But the people inside aren’t random Joes by any means – they’re his friends (and Karl Lagerfeld).

Selby’s subjects live in spaces that range from cluttered to OCD-organized. But all of them have some kind of special, unattainable magic, lent partially by the Selby’s lens. We caught up with him for the Toronto stop of his book tour to hear more about his uniquely voyeuristic creative vision.

The Block: Can you tell us a about your collaboration on your special edition book with Mark the Cobrasnake?

Todd Selby: I wanted to do an event in LA for my book launch. So Mark had this idea of doing special edition of my book, like a bootleg edition that would come with a chapter on him, his grandma and grandpa. It had a special bag that we designed together and it was launched it at his new store [The Pawn Shop] … so it just kinda happened that way.

TB: Tell us about the Jack Purcell campaign.

TS: Well, I’ve done many ad campaigns through the years. Now it’s really heated up in terms of just working with so many. I did Nike 6.0 this past fall. It was my first the Selby-related advertising campaign. I shot all these Nike athletes in their homes around the world. Cole Haan was the next really big one, and then Jack Purcell.

TB: What do you think about being referred to as a blogger?

TS: I don’t really consider myself to be a blogger. I don’t really care. What is a blogger? I don’t know. It’s humorous to me. It’s a whole new thing, so words haven’t been created yet.

TB: Tell us about your first job at Details magazine.

TS: I did production and assisting. It was an amazing experience. That was better than four years of art school for me. That was Details during 2000-2001, when it was really killing it. Nothing against it now. But then it was at the top of its game. Seeing the portfolios of Tim Richardson, Jurgen Teller, and Philip de Corsa and how these photographers presented their work, and getting to meet some of them. And the basics of putting together a photo shoot. You go to art school and you don’t learn any of that. You learn stuff you won’t even end up doing.

TB: Do you still read magazines?

TS: I barely look at magazines now. Partly because I don’t have as much time. I don’t want to buy magazines anymore. They’re just filling my house. I’m trying to get rid of them. I’ll look at them and then I won’t look at them again. The ones that I keep and that I look at again and again: Self Service or Purple or Paris Vogue. Like really being selective. Because it gets crazy. I get in a magazine store and I love magazines, and just buy every magazine, you know.

TB: What is your take on being compared to Andy Warhol?

TS: He’s influenced me and every artist in the post-Andy Warhol world. I think he was a genius and he made a lot his money doing commissions kind of as his way of financing his art work, you know? But that’s not really my structure. I’m very attracted to his idea of the factory and doing things in-house, and the DIY thing is something I’m really excited about as well. But there’s no factory, it’s just me.

TB: Did you feel uncomfortable doing the Colette show? Was it your idea?

TS: It was my idea for sure. And something I had to put through to Sarah, as they never did something like that in the window before. … So it was my idea and she got on board. She saw my vision and was super supportive. Was I uncomfortable? Not really … What was weird was that I had a bed in there and when I’d lie down people would trip out. They’d see a guy, and it’s like “Is he gonna get naked? Is he sleeping? ‘What is this?” If I was sitting there people would just walk by.

TB: What city provides the most inspiration for you as an artist?

TS: Paris has been the best for me so far. In New York I have tight connections, so it’s been really great. But in Paris people have been so cool and so open. They have such a culture in France and a support for artists which we don’t have in America. We have respect for superstar artists and business people, but there young artists can be like “Hey I’m doing this” to someone like Christian Louboutin and they’d really consider it.

TB: A lot of people from the outside say if you want to make it you go to New York City. What’s your take on that?

TS: There’s infinite ways. The internet has broken down so many doors. You can do something on your computer and be anywhere, not know anyone, and if it catches on in the right way it can blow up and really happen for you. And sometimes having the outsider card is the real nice card to play. When I started doing photography I was the New York guy, but I worked for so many London magazines. I worked for Dazed & Confused, which was my big one. If I was a London guy going to Dazed as a photographer I would have just been a London guy compared to a million other ones. So I had a bit of an edge because I was someone else. I was doing something from a different perspective from the scene, so being the outsider can be really good. But you’ve gotta be smart about those kinds of things.

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