Editor’s Pick: Spirited Astray by Quinn Wharton

There’s nothing like happy photo accidents to make you take pause. This portrait Quinn Wharton took of model Chris John Millington for the art, music and fashion platform L.I.F.E Collective in London is a shining example.

The Chicago-based photographer and choreographer went across the Atlantic on a separate assignment for Dance Magazine when he linked up with L.I.F.E editor-in-chief Jesse Stokkel and found himself doing another shoot, in the streets of Shoreditch with Millington (who’s often credited for having started the “beard trend” within the modeling world).

Beginning the shoot in the “darkest, lowest” place he could find, Wharton spotted “this little gem of an alleyway,” he explains. “Chris has a real intense look, and I wanted to reinforce that with the setting.” It was (unsurprisingly) raining that day—Wharton chose to incorporate it. He let the droplets settle on his lens and fired off his Canon 580EX II flash from his left hip.

“I prefer to throw as many elements into the image as I can,” he says. “Usually my mistakes make for the most interesting images. The ones you plan feel fake and forced, but throwing in enough chaos and ‘wrong’ to me creates truth and a spontaneous moment.” A normal enough portrait became accidentally otherworldly—it’s as if Millington is exhaling his own spirit.