Lifestyle photography captures relaxed expressions, often with subjects who aren’t models. Personal branding photography is the niche within it that tells the visual stories of London’s thought leaders and change-makers, putting them in an approachable, confident light.
Borrowing styling from fashion photography and the composition of editorial portraiture, personal branding photography positions a leader and defines their presence. How does a leader stand out from others and make an impression?
Bernard Garby is one of those leaders, defining the space where fashion media, digital influence and modern personal branding meet. As a London-based fashion commentator, broadcaster and luxury media professional from Lithuania, his interview and story in ELLE Lithuania’s print issue No. 25 felt like a natural fit for personal branding photography and editorial fashion photography, with his newfound home of London as the backdrop.
Having worked across titles including Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE and Esquire, Bernard was named in Media Week’s 30 Under 30 while building one of TikTok’s most recognisable fashion news platforms. His voice is direct, witty and deliberately unromantic, cutting through the industry’s polished surface to make fashion feel more human, accessible and honest.
Layla Desjardins is the talented stylist (and fellow Canadian) I often turn to as my menswear styling partner for commercial fashion projects and the personal branding photography services I offer, giving leaders a wardrobe that matches their energy and the impact they make.
As a personal friend of Bernard’s, Layla introduced me to Bernard and invited me to match his interview – and the look she styled him in, designed by London’s Denzil Patrick – with personal branding portraits that will last in print for lifetimes to come inside ELLE Lithuania’s June issue.
Drawing inspiration from my London street photography and the street-style work I produce at London Fashion Week, starting our photoshoot at Central London’s 180 Strand made perfect sense; it’s the home of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN space, where new talent in fashion design present their collections on the runway.
“...it doesn’t start from the front rows at Fashion Week, but from the person trying on jeans and hesitating whether to buy them.”
180 Strand is also where I began my street-style photography career in September 2024. Back then, before covering street style in London for Pinterest today, I patiently waited outside the only advertised London Fashion Week location for well-dressed guests to emerge, having yet to be introduced to fashion show locations like Denzil Patrick’s – not knowing anyone in the city after having recently moved to London from Vancouver, Canada.
As Lithuania’s fashion delegate to London and the world, in the eyes of ELLE Magazine, tastefully including its instantly recognisable landmarks to those who’ve never been there – without feeling like a tourist postcard – is what led our photoshoot.
London’s iconic architecture, like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Trafalgar Square, all found their way into our shoot, along with the double-decker buses and Lime bikes that fill the streets around them.
“Today, luxury is becoming not a handbag or a logo, but a state of mind—peace, wellness, comfort.”
Those spots are my stomping ground for candidly documenting Londoners through street photography. The crowds and characters they attract, combined with their expressions and interactions, allow me to create street-photography work that best expresses my personality and humour, while feeling most real to me.
While shooting in vivid colour defines my photography portfolio, Bernard’s portraits called to match ELLE’s aesthetic; offering black-and-white portraits was a must. The beauty of black-and-white photography is that compositions become clearer and distractions can be limited. In practice, the London Eye became a geometric frame, whereas the motion blur of red buses in Trafalgar Square gave London its characteristic pop of red.
Overall, this was a special project for me: it brought together the photography disciplines London has led me to love, while helping define a success milestone in London for Bernard Garby.
“People were simply missing someone who talked about fashion not in a snobbish way, but in a human way, with humour and simplicity.”
Interview by Greta Kukštaitė
Stylist: Layla Desjardins
Photography: Ian Kobylanski
Stylist Assistant: Teagan Griffiths
Lighting Assistant: Allie Casey
