Review of Male Writers’ Fashion Decisions in Their Author Photos: Sam Lipsyte, Zachary German, Tan Lin

from the archives

Looking through a group chat, I noticed I described Matt Gasda’s outfit at the premiere of his play “Zoomers” as “literally dressed like how a Hollywood costume designer would dress ‘a young playwright’ in a low budget 90s teen romcom,” and I was reminded of a piece I wrote for the literary magazine at the University of Alabama in 2012 that was never published. I just reread it and I enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t published because the editor at the time, Brandi Wells (who published their first full-length novel last year which you should buy), told me they thought it was “mean.” I disagreed, and I still disagree! I clearly wanted to be these guys’ friend and I wanted to show them that someone was paying attention to them, which to me is an act of generosity. Being a guy is not like a being a girl; people don’t really notice you, or it doesn’t feel like they do, or at least that’s how it seems to me. So here’s the piece, which is also sort of a time capsule of 2012 American indie literature.

Review of Male Writers’ Fashion Decisions in Their Author Photos: Sam Lipsyte, Zachary German, Tan Lin

We’re all trying to look good for each other these days and male writers are no exception especially in photographs of them which are public and findable on Google Image Search. Here I review 3 instances of male writers’ fashion decisions in pictures.

Sam Lipsyte

Sam Lipsyte writes books and was interviewed by the NYT and here we see him in something like a ‘normal author photo’. As you can see he looks a bit like a weatherman which may have to do with the sky behind him gearing up for some precipitation, which goes to show you the ‘background’/’context’ of your author pic can be as active in determining your author pic’s meaning as your clothes decisions and is a lesson that will recur passim herein. Sam has chosen to wear what might be a black ‘fleece’ over a navy hoodie; he is doing ‘layering’. He is clean-shaven and is achieving a combination of smiling and smirking, which is done by first smiling then trying to frown a little. This makes your face appear to have a believable/‘realistic’ amount of humanness and is another kind of layering, which is a theme. Sam’s hair looks windblown, which is another reason he may appear to be bringing you news about a storm that’s breaking in your area. He’s looking directly at the camera. This is a risky decision and not easy to pull off but I think it’s working for him—comes a point when you can’t pretend you don’t see the camera: you’re being observed; you’ve written a book; you’re in New York. Having a theme contributes to an impression of heightened intentionality in your fashion decisions which as in ‘literature’ attracts attention and more-careful consideration because people feel you’ve put more effort into your book/outfit. Sam here is working within a very conventional, even ‘retro’ aesthetic of author pics but despite that he’s put his stamp on it, good job Sam. Layering is good for fall.

Zachary German

Here Zachary German appears as a Danish supermodel in evening wear. This is a good look for Zachary given his handsome smooth face and open mouth. Notice the bow tie, trench coat, shirt that might be poplin, hard to tell from picture. Product in hair makes the hair go sweeping up, short around sides, very good. Zachary is looking directly at the camera, like Sam before him. All the tones of his clothes match his skin tone very closely, which is intentional, and makes his eyes and hair really ‘pop’, especially his hair. This photograph has been ‘shopped’ to enhance this effect, but it is a legit effect that is viable on the street without postprocessing. Zachary is dressed for being in a magazine, which makes you understand he understands context’s import w/r/t style, like how in ‘print’ some people do orthography, & even syntax, one way, but a wholly different way for online writing. This principle holds for fashion decisions also. Zachary might wear different clothes while just hanging with friends. Zachary has written a book. His ‘model’ style seems like an appropriate way to allow stylists to dress him for a photo shoot where they list him as a beautiful person of a year, which happened. Play to your strengths, and also consider the possible excitement evocable if you blend things not normally mixed, such as being a writer but also a model (or like a model). Zachary is doing something different and that makes us notice him. Good job Zachary. It has been said that all masterpieces are genre blends/hybrids. The background is graded minimally in the direction exactly, but subtly, opposite to his face’s shadows’ gradient. Excellent work all around.

Tan Lin

This is Tan Lin, a writer of poetry, smiling, looking very happy in a baseball cap in a vinyl possibly- café booth or maybe just bench or wide chair. Excellent, original way to be in a picture, for a poet, especially a poet who’s experimental. I would call this look ‘exuberant’ or ‘ebullient’. Both words start with the Latin prefix ‘ex’ (abbreviated to just ‘e’ in latter) which means ‘out of’ and means something’s coming out of, and here I think we really see something’s coming out of Tan, some kind of happiness or feeling which seems super-authentic and is directed at and projects into the camera’s lens. He’s wearing a white ball cap with a definitely curved bill that fits his head well and makes the top of his head seem very round and accentuates his slim frame. The color is probably somewhat ‘off’ in this photo; I don’t think his lips are really that color. Look at his glasses. Face, very clean cut, as with all our instances here, possibly a trend among published authors in pics. In the red background are either chandeliers, bedposts, or melting floating cookies. People can also be seen in the background. Is this an ‘event’? Could equally be a ‘vernissage’ w/ vinyl booth seating or a diner with floating melting near-invisible large cookies. Teal-ish shirt, looks light, maybe cotton/polyester blend, hard to tell from photo. Tan’s looking directly at the camera makes that a 3-peat—just because an activity is risky doesn’t mean it isn’t common. Little bit of mustache. This is probably the most relaxed picture, it may have been taken by a friend, non-professional, or both. Nice choice. Tan seems happy. I like his poetry. Good job Tan. I like this picture.