Photographers and flashing cameras swarmed the city that never sleeps as Proenza Schouler’s opening New York Fashion Week 2023 runway was coming to an end.
Many of the photographers were consumed in conversation, having known each other from previous Fashion Week shows, but Archita Rout was alone, making her way through the crowd, patiently waiting for the celebrity guests and models to file out of the show so that she could capture the perfect photo.
Rout, the former editor-in-chief of Scarlette Magazine, graduated from Ohio State with a degree in microbiology in May 2023, now pursuing her master’s degree in public health at Columbia University, but she has refused to give up her love for fashion photography in the process.
“It was nothing like the other photography I had done,” Rout said. “I didn’t know what to do at first but then soon after I got the hang of it.”
Rout said she first got into photography in high school.
“Initially I was just taking artsy pictures of random things,” Rout said. “Then, during my sophomore year, I transitioned more towards taking photoshoots with my friends. I mostly did it for fun, just because I loved it as a hobby.”
Rout said she continued to get more into photography as high school continued and even started her own business doing senior photos and graduation photoshoots.
That is when Rout said she discovered Philip Bradshaw, then the Scarlette Magazine editor-in-chief, on Instagram and discovered the world of fashion photography. She said it was then that her future became clear.
“So I just started to dabble in fashion photography, then I joined Scarlette and that was a way for me to step into fashion photography and it really opened a door for me,” Rout said.
While in Scarlette Magazine, Rout said she was able to explore the world of editorial photography, serving as the lead photographer on the Barbie-inspired cover shoot for the 2022 Fall/Winter edition of the magazine.
“It’s fun to take pictures when you’re able to explore something new,” Rout said. “Fashion photography isn’t as repetitive as the graduation shoots I’ve done. It is different every time.”
Since graduating from Ohio State last spring, Rout moved to New York City to pursue her master’s in public health at Columbia University but knew she wanted to find a way to continue to work in fashion photography.
“I followed a fashion photographer from New York who had posted about New York Fashion Week and I knew it existed but I didn’t know what it was,” Rout said. “So I sent her a direct message and I said, ‘Hey, I’m super interested in this. How do you really get involved with fashion photography?’”
That photographer was Sasha Eck, a New York-based photographer, who was more than willing to help Rout navigate her first-ever Fashion Week.
“I only really do street photography during New York Fashion Week and started that about two years ago,” Eck said. “Photography originally started as a hobby that was influenced by my dad. He was an architect and an artist and picked up photography to capture the architecture, nature and people during our vacations in Europe.”
Eck said when her fatherdecided to upgrade his camera he gifted her his old one. Little did she know it would lead her to a lifelong career in photography.
“I started playing around with taking street photos, portraits of my friends and self-portraits,” Eck said. “As school picked up I ended up forgetting about photography but when COVID-19 hit and everyone was stuck at home, I found myself craving a creative outlet.”
Eck said she knew she wanted to work in fashion, either for a brand or for a magazine, but photography allowed her to do both as well as continue to explore fashion street photography and attend New York Fashion Week.
“My first fashion week I knew absolutely nothing and there were no answers online. No one wanted to share any tips other than the obvious, ‘Ask people to get their photos taken and be strong, it’s a competitive field,’ but with every season I networked more and more and by my third season I could tell you where every show is happening, who will possibly attend and if it’s worth it to go.”
Rout said Eck was kind enough to not only respond to her message but to also provide her with the location of the 2023 Proenza Schouler runway.
“It was overwhelming at first. It was kind of like paparazzi, everyone was swarming around,” Rout said. I had no idea what I was doing, but I quickly got the hang of it.”
Rout said that although she is actively pursuing a career in medicine, she loves having a creative outlet that has nothing to do with healthcare.
“Fashion photography is so creative and so fun,” Rout said. “Seeing the way people express themselves in fashion, and I’m not someone who is super expressive when it comes to my clothes, but seeing how other people are able to do it and just seeing the cool stuff that they come up with and being able to capture that is just so exciting to me.”
