It’s tea time at EarthMatters Organic Market on Ludlow Street in NYC. We’re on the second-floor of the quaint little market, perched on red fake-leather chairs in a secluded corner booth. The lighting is bright, not harsh, but not soft and romantic, either. I’m sitting with 26-year-old Cameron Krone, one of the biggest names right now on fashion photography’s hot list. Cameron doesn’t look like I expected him to. In my mind I pictured him scruffy around the edges and a bit… off. Not “off” in a bad way, just “off” in the scruffy hippie sense. Instead, he looks sharp in a black Hugo Boss jacket. Clean cut. I’d just ordered a green tea, while Cameron had chosen coffee. Black.

As we sit down I joke around with Cameron, asking him how he could shift from selling Mexican real estate to becoming a New York elitist. To be more specific, he is almost a New York elitist and hasn’t exactly sold any Mexican real estate yet, but he holds a degree with a major in real estate and a minor in Spanish. And although he says he would love to go to Mexico and sell some houses, that will have to be on hold for the moment, because next week he has to shoot the band Paramore for Elle Magazine.

“They consider us the New Blood,” Krone states, taking a sip of his coffee. “That’s what they are calling us.” “They” are the major players that have been dominating the fashion scene. “They” are the makers of Kate Moss, the reason why Giselle Bundchen gets paid over 1 million per ad campaign. “They” are the reason Gucci, Fendi, and every other major fashion label exists. “They” are the extremely high-paid, high-powered elite celebrity photographers losing their stride, falling out of step, falling behind the next generation: twenty-six year olds.

As my Sugar in the Raw spills all over the table, Cameron points out to me that the 7 packets I’m putting in my tea are still much healthier than a can of Coke. I reply coyly, asking Krone if he is straight or gay. He doesn’t respond either way, wondering why I’m asking the question.

Photographing Dree Hemingway and Kanye West’s girlfriend Amber Rose, wasn’t something Krone thought about when he first moved to New York City to pursue a life of fashion photography. He concentrated more on shooting low-end models for low-end magazines. A-list models that would later catapult Krone’s career wasn’t something that would would fall onto his lap immediately, he says.

“Back when I started shooting, I worked until five, and I would meet with agencies until six. And I think that… this is just crazy, but I think that one of the agents was gay, and he thought I was cute, and so that’s why I got the models that others worked years to get. That’s how I got them.” So correct me if I’m wrong, but the fashion world really isn’t that far off from Hollywood’s acting scene. It really is all about who you may or may not sleep with.

Coco Rocha, a Canadian supermodel, was one his first test shoots. He also shot Dree Hemingway, before she was big, against his will. “There were three other models on set and a friend accidentally brought her, after I told him there were enough girls.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dree Hemingway, she is the great granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway and came on the fashion scene in 2008.

Right now I am looking at one of Krone’s shots. It’s a black and white, and she’s naked with a fur coat barely covering her left nipple; the right one is fully exposed. As Krone explains to me, “Someone naked… to me it’s just so effortless.” I ask him why he shoots in black and white, and he responds, “Because you’re stripping away the colors. You’re stripping away, you know, everything the eye sees, and you’re coming up with a graphic. And a pose.”

Trying to explain Krone’s style as simple and understated is simply an understatement. He is against being compared to Helmut Newton, who is known for his minimalist black-and-white, high-contrast images. As far as Krone goes: minimalist, yes. Simple, no. Quite the contrary, actually. Krone predominantly works with female models, and while there is certainly a feminine quality about his work, his models tend to lie more on the masculine side. Which is not to be confused with the androgynous look that’s in-vogue right now. His models just seem more confident. These women are erotically charged heterosexuals. Whereas most photographers look for a sense of vulnerability in a woman, Krone’s images have a magnitude, a force. Underneath each image is a primal cue to what every woman would like to stand for. A woman standing against a white background wearing nothing but a fur scarf and a ball cap seems minimalist, but there is something in her eye that makes you wonder what Krone was thinking the moment he snapped the photo.

Krone finds that the much-sought-after “it” factor stems from what his parents taught him when he was a child. “Basically, my parents taught me what the word ‘classic’ is. It’s not ostentatious. It’s not a yellow Lamborghini; it’s a black Mercedes. I think basically the wealthiest people on the block are the ones that are driving the BMW. And the ones that are driving the Ferrari may have spent all of their money on the Ferrari.”

To get a taste of “classic” part of Krone’s signature style, let’s take you where some of his images have landed. He’s wound up on the pages of V, Vman, Nylon, Details, and Vogue Italia Accessories. These heavy-hitting magazines are just the beginning for Krone. Treading in Krone’s path is something only a handful will get to experience. At the beginning of his career, Krone assisted Nathaniel Goldberg, Craig McDean and Mario Sorrenti, and the list goes on, but that’s honestly nothing when you’re now landing gigs like FHM Collections, Yves Saint Lauren, and Polo.

In talking about exactly when his career was about to take off, he tries to contextualize. “It was very recent. It was a few people telling me, you’re going to do very, very well. It was a few people super high up.” Curiously, he also claims he’s not sure it is taking off. “Teen Vogue called me, and Alastair McKimm who’s a huge stylist who I’ve wanted to always work with, forever, called me. That’s when I knew. And two years ago I was just dying to work with this guy.”

One thing that attracted me to Krone from the start was his self-professed love for Kanye West on his popular blog, cameronkrone.tumblr.com. On the blog, there are more photos than copy, as well as bits of randomness that demonstrate Krone’s personal appeal: Chanel surf boards, Ray-Bans, and the models of the moment that Krone proclaims are “hot.” I wasn’t sure what it was about Kanye at first. Who could understand what the fascination would be with the not-so-popular West these days, after his near career-killing stunt at the VMAs? I was fascinated with Krone’s fascination, with his admiration for West, Andre Agassi, and, coincidentally, Tiger Woods.

Krone recently met Kanye while shooting his supermodel girlfriend Amber Rose. So I asked, what’s it like to finally Meet Kanye west? Considering you have lived, died, and breathed for this man?

He laughs, “Halfway through the Amber Rose shoot, Amber was like, have you ever met Kanye? And she’s like, well, he’s on his way. And I was like, no way! You just get totally calm and in this zen kind of state, and you’re just like, what’s up Kanye, how you doing? He’s eating this jelly sandwich, way out of nowhere Brooklyn.”

I’m really not sure how one could meet Kanye and be normal about it. I would let the grill session begin. Krone on the other hand being the nice shy guy that he is, was obviously excited and polite. He goes on. “I don’t think it kicked in until afterwards, when my agent and I were just like… holy shit. Kanye West.”

“[West, Agassi, and Woods] in some respects, dropped from first to worst in a way,” Krone says. It’s interesting that Krone effortlessly decided to write about these three celebrities before any sign of a fall. “With Kanye, with his comments at the MTV awards show. Tiger, this year. Agassi got involved with, I guess, crystal meth? For like six months, whatever. I think… I look at these guys, and I don’t even want to be top, or the best. Because in a way when you’re the best it’s so much pressure that I can’t imagine it. You know? Like… The stature that Tiger Woods had? So I want to be good, but what I don’t want to be is the top photographer in the world.”

Pressing Krone on the question of why these celebrities specifically, he replies, “I look up to all three of them, you know, basically because… Well, first of all, Kanye West. He started out and he changed the entire rap genre. He said what was on his mind. He wasn’t afraid of being different. And Tiger Woods I like because he changed golf. He got people into it. Golf is a sport for the elite. I think Agassi changed the game as well, you know, with his hairdo. People were like, this guy has such a huge ego. Do we like him? Do we dislike him?

I flip these words back to Krone to get a reaction, insisting that he in fact is changing the game of photography. His reaction is passé. “How so?” he shrugs. I tell him he’s paving his own path, working as an artist who isn’t waiting around to assist, one more eager to direct the scene than sit on the sidelines. I tell him there are plenty of photographers that want to have the same sort of appeal he has. “See…” he says. “I’m getting a lot of hype. And the funny thing is, I don’t see it. When you’re doing it, you don’t know that other people are talking about you, to a certain degree. And sometimes I just want to do my thing, no hype. But there’s also a fear to that too. Like, do you want the press? The speculation that’s on your work…” He pauses, thinking. “But then again, photographers aren’t celebrities. So even if I did hit it big, I’d still be not well known.”

Speaking of celebrity status, Krone claims there is a downfall to meeting so many beautiful women. Although having a girlfriend for 2010 is on his list, it’s almost harder to meet women, he complains. “It’s almost better saying no models. You meet so many girls that it makes it very hard.” I ask Krone if he has ever experienced sexual chemistry with a model he’s shot. He divulges that, although it rarely happens, “when you do have that sort of chemistry it’s amazing. That’s when you fall in love with the model for a day.”

Maybe a day, or in Krone’s world, 3 years, having dating 3 major models within that time period. For an example of the chemistry between artist and subject, think the movie Unfaithful, where Diane Lane and uber-sexpot artist Oliver Martinez seduces her on the canvas. So even with mind blowing off the charts chemistry like this, model after model, one looking just as the next, I guess I could understand how it could be redundantly routine. Krone goes on to explain ” You’ll meet a model that you get along with, and you’ll go out with her for a month or so. And then she leaves for Paris for like six months.” He also openly admits that after being around so many models, “it’s hard to bring your eyes back to reality. You see normal pretty girls, on the street, wherever, that you would normally be attracted to, but you’re like, ‘Oh, you know, this model’s prettier.’ That’s why most photographers… even though they’re good looking guys, whatever, they’re cool… are single.”

I ponder this for a minute or so, and then ask, “In living your dream, is it worth it? Is it hard a lot of the time?”

“Great question,” Krone answers. “I talked to my agent about this a lot. I’d be like, ‘Edith. I just shot for Details. And yet I’m still stressed with deadlines.’ I’m still stressed with a lot of things. You think that reaching that plateau… you’d think shooting for W. will just make you happy all the time. You won’t be stressed, and this and that. It’s smoke and mirrors. Yes, it’s cool, and I like doing well, but if you ask Kanye West, is he happier now than when before he was famous? I bet he’s saying maybe he was happier before.

“Tom Ford… he gave an interview for W. and he was saying back, 20 years ago, he was living in this shitty apartment on St. Marks. And he was happier then than he is now with all his fame. I don’t want to be successful to be happy. Happiness comes from relationships, from working out… from yoga… and just being happy with yourself.”
“You have to enjoy the journey,” I say.

By: April Hubal